Concourse A is open for business, Dubai Airports confirms

Leaders at Dubai Airports have confirmed that the brand new Concourse A facility at Dubai International Airport is now fully open for business.It is the world's first purpose-built complex for the A380 aircraft and has been gradually launched over a five-week period.The inaugural flight left Concourse A for London on January 2nd and nearly 590,000 people have passed through the state-of-the-art terminal ever since.President of Emirates Airline Tim Clark said the opening of the new facility is a "significant milestone".Meanwhile, chief executive officer at Dubai Airports Pail Griffiths insisted that Concourse A is a vital part of an overall $7.8 billion investment to increase capacity at Dubai International."Much like the opening of Terminal 3 in 2008, the phase in of Concourse A has resulted in the seamless introduction of world-class infrastructure that responds to the rapid growth of Emirates and caters to the needs of its discerning and truly global customer base," he remarked.The new-look airport is now capable of handling 75 million passengers a year - up from 60 million last year.This expansion comes at an opportune time, as the aviation hub was operating very close to full capacity in 2012 and around 66 million people are expected to visit the emirate in 2013.Mr Griffiths believes that Dubai International will be the world's busiest airport for international traffic by 2015.It became the third biggest facility on the planet last year - overtaking Hong Kong International in the process - and it will be able to accommodate 90 million visitors once all of the renovations are finished in 2018.Dubai Airports is doing all it can to improve its services and last week it announced two important appointments within the firm.Ali Angizeh - previously the head of Terminal 3 - has now been promoted to vice president of cargo and logistics, while current head of facility management Omar Binadai will take on the role of vice president of engineering performance.