The Past, Present and Future of Aviation in Dubai - Airport Business

18 The past, present and future of Dubai aviationVision andpreparation keyto successAhli: "What the airport has achieved would nothave been possible without the guidance andsupport of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum,President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, andthe committed staff of Dubai Airports."from Dubai International each day.As the airport developed, sodid Ahli’s career as he gainedexperience in every departmentbefore assuming his current positionof Director General. “I am proud ofmy role in building this airport,” hesays. “I gained experience in almostevery area… cargo, passengertraffic, load and flight planninguntil I reached this position.”When Director General ofservices,” he recalls. “We had veryThe facilities were advancedAhli has always espoused aDubai Civil Aviation Authorityfew airlines operating into thefor the time and the belief wascompassionate attitude towardsMohamed Ahli joined the airportairport…Iranian and Middle East,that the new airport would lastairlines in difficulty. Over the years,in 1966 Dubai International was aKuwait Airways and British OverseasDubai for at least the next 50that approach has consolidated thefar different airport than it is todayAviation Company (BOAC).”years. Of course, the airport’sairport’s reputation for workingfeaturing a single sand runway, aFrom its humble beginnings, thepopularity, Dubai’s geo-centricityin partnership with customers.small terminal building to processairport was slowly developed andand the addition of new airlinesFor example, the airport offeredpassengers and a handful of airlines.began to come into its own during itsconspired to ensure this estimatediscounts and the use of someIt has since developed into thesecond decade of operation. “In 1971was phenomenally off-track.facilities without charge to Middleworld’s fifth busiest airport forthe new airport was opened and it“It was only one and a half yearsEast Airlines during the war in 1975international passenger traffic.started to boom from 1972,” says Ahli.later when we had to removeto help them through a challengingAnd Ahli, who began his career in“We had one runway and excellentthe garden and landscapingtime. That attitude lives on toticketing and reservations, now headsfacilities – all the runway facilitiesto build offices,” explains Ahli.this day. Most recently, during theDubai’s Civil Aviation Authority.with landing systems and navigational“Then we built another runwaydisruptions caused by the Icelandic“In those days there was noaids, not like before when we usedand started expanding.”volcano that all but shut downDubai Civil Aviation. Dnata wasto have a compacted sand runwayFinally a new terminal was built toEuropean airspace in April, Dubailooking after everything; civil aviation,and we used to light torches withaccommodate the vast number ofAirports waived parking fees forticket sales, reservations and airportgasoline for aircraft to land at night.”passengers arriving at and departingairlines with stranded aircraft.