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“We wanted to put the customer at the heart of the design and ensure that the whole passenger layout, including the design of retail and food & beverage, was created from the traveller’s perspective.“ |
Paul Griffiths CEO Dubai Airports |
UAE. Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths has said that the new Concourse D at Dubai International is one step towards “making flying fun again”. The new facility, he told The Moodie Davitt Report this week (in an interview that will feature in a special publication about the development), was created with the customer in mind.
As reported, Concourse D opened in late February, increasing capacity at Dubai International from 75 million to 90 million passengers a year. A number of world-renowned brands are being introduced to Dubai and the region for the first time, notably in food & beverage, while Dubai Duty Free manages over 7,000sq m of new space there.
Griffiths said: “We started with a blank sheet of paper and asked what it would take to create something that brings together the best of the individual things that we do, makes the customer feel great about the experience and encourages them to spend more money with us.
“We wanted to put the customer at the heart of the design and ensure that the whole passenger layout, including the design of retail and food & beverage, was created from the traveller’s perspective.
“We have grouped all of the different services including retail and food & beverage into logical areas with high quality seating. Rather than corralling different parts of the airport experience into distinct zones, the intelligent application is to give people options throughout their airport journey, options that they can select of their own accord. That is at the heart of the design of Concourse D. It is a long way from where we were when we designed Terminal 3 Concourse B in 2008. And the customer response do far has been very positive.”
Griffiths highlighted the introduction of new brands such as Wolfgang Puck, Pret A Manger and CNN Café, saying these underlined the showcase that Dubai International offers.
The development also helps alleviate pressure on capacity at the world’s largest hub for international traffic – and third largest airport across all traffic categories.
“We project 85.5 million passengers by the end of 2016 and we have set ourselves the huge task of being able to host 118 million by 2023,” added Griffiths. “That will come not through capacity increases – as we have no more space after building Concourse D – but through process elimination or improvement and the use of technology. Beyond that we have a whole new ball game in Dubai World Central Phase 2 with an initial capacity of 120 million by 2025 allowing the Emirates hub to move over there – with an eventual capacity of 240 million people per year.
“Keeping customer expectations rolling and getting people to respond positively to the experiences we provide while we add volume is a difficult challenge. It’s not a linear challenge: the more volume grows, the more difficult it becomes to maintain service quality. It’s about getting the basics right, the less obvious areas that can help raise customer satisfaction, alongside offering those great experiences people now expect in retail and food.”
Ultimately, said Griffiths, it was vital that passengers go away from the airport “with a positive feeling, an emotional response that means they have had a great experience.”
He said: “For some people air travel can be a really daunting experience, particularly if you are not used to the processes involved. We want those processes – the ones we cannot eliminate altogether – to be friendly and we want flying to be fun again. I’m a romantic at heart and I love the idea of air travel being a human enabler, of reuniting people and bringing whole societies together. We talk about the global village: social contact will still be an enormous part of how society works. Airports have a duty of care to make that whole process enjoyable again.”
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The Dubai Duty Free stores are at the heart of the retail offer |
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The new concourse includes an eclectic food & beverage offer, including many national and regional firsts |
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Concourse D: Adding much needed capacity at Dubai International |
A landmark publication for a landmark project
Moodie Davitt Corporate, the corporate publications arm of The Moodie Davitt Report, has been appointed publisher of a special book that celebrates the opening of Dubai International Airport Concourse D.
This high-quality A4 production will tell the tale of one of the world’s most ambitious contemporary airport terminals.
The book will include interviews with senior airport management, commercial, design and operations teams, Dubai Duty Free, plus other service partners from food & beverage to advertising.
It will be distributed to Concourse D stakeholders and key business partners. To maximise exposure for advertisers, it will also be produced digitally and e-mailed to The Moodie Davitt Report’s entire reader database, as well as being permanently archived at www.TheMoodieReport.com.
For advertising details please contact Connie@MoodieDavittReport.com.
