Airport Planning

Assignment No. 2
Topic :

  Search online and find at least one person in the position of Airport Manager (head of
an airport) and share his/her professional experience and educational background with
class.

Rida Fatima

F2019001067

Submitted to : Muhammad Iqal

 Dubai International Airport

Dubai International Airport is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab

Emirates, and is the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic. It is also
the nineteenth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic, one of the busiest cargo airports
in the world, the busiest airport for Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 movements,] and the airport
with the highest average number of passengers per flight. In 2017, the airport handled 88 million
passengers and 2.65 million tonnes of cargo and registered 409,493 aircraft movements. Dubai
International Airport is situated in the Al Garhoud district, 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi)
east of Dubai and spread over an area of 7,200 acres (2,900 ha) of land. Terminal 3 is the second-
largest building in the world by floor space and the largest airport terminal in the world. In July
2019, Dubai International airport installed the largest solar energy system in the region's airports
as part of Dubai's goal to reduce 30 percent of the city energy consumption by 2030.
Emirates Airline has its hub airport in Dubai International (DXB) and has their own terminal 3
with 3 concourses that they share with Flydubai. 
 Paul Griffiths, CEO

Paul Griffiths is CEO of Dubai Airports, with the responsibility for the operation and
development of Dubai International (DXB) – the world’s busiest airport for international
passengers, as well as Dubai World Central (DWC)

Paul Griffiths FRCO (born 16 October 1957) is a British businessman and musician, CEO
of Dubai Airports, a company based in the United Arab Emirates and wholly owned by the
Dubai government. He is also a Vice President and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of
the Royal College of Organists.
Early Life :
He was born in London and educated at Parkside Preparatory School. After a brief period at The
Latymer School, he moved with his family to Hertfordshire where he attended Richard Hale
School in Hertford. At the age of ten, he started to study church music and became an organist,
winning many prizes in local competitions. He became a fellow of the Royal College of
Organists in 1984.

Career
Following the advice of his father, he decided against a full-time career in music and entered the
travel industry in 1977 as a Contracts Executive with the OSL/Wings travel group, which was
owned by the Rank Organisation. He later joined Reed International as Marketing and Research
Manager in 1983. In 1986, he moved to Hong Kong and became Marketing Manager of the then
start-up airline Dragonair.
In 1989, he returned to the UK and established a software company which developed proprietary
information management systems for the airline industry. One of his contracts was for Virgin
Atlantic. Upon seeing the capability of the systems he had developed, he was asked by Richard
Branson to join Virgin Atlantic as its Executive Director, Commercial in 1991. In 1994, he
joined the main board of the Virgin Travel Group. During his ten years with Virgin, he was
responsible for the strategic growth of the airline and many of its notable commercial successes,
including the sale of 49% of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines in 2000. In 2001, he became a
board director of the Virgin Rail Group and oversaw the launch of new
fleets; Class 390 Pendolinos on the InterCity West Coast franchise
and Class 220 Voyagers and 221 Super Voyagers on the Virgin CrossCountry franchise.
In 2004, he joined BAA and in 2005 became Chairman and Managing Director of Gatwick
Airport Limited.[4] In 2007 he was appointed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum as the
first Chief Executive Officer of the newly formed Dubai Airports Corporation.[5] Dubai Airports
owns and operates Dubai International Airport, currently ranked first in the world for passenger
traffic and sixth in cargo traffic. Dubai Airports is also developing Dubai World Central (DWC),
35 km south of central Dubai, as part of a 148 sq km "Aerotropolis". Construction of the first
phase of the project was completed in June 2010 and freight operations commenced with 17
cargo airlines using the airport. Plans for DWC allow for the development of five runways and
12 separate concourses, capable of accommodating 240 million passengers per annum, which
makes it the world's largest airport project.

Education and associations:

Griffiths was a student of Malcolm Hicks and Stephen Farr. He is a licentiate of the Royal
Academy of Music, an associate of the Royal College of Music. He also became an associate of
the Royal College of Organists in 1982 and a fellow two years later. In 2000 he was appointed to
the Board of Trustees of the Royal College of Organists and became Chairman of the Executive
Committee in 2002. In 2007 he became a vice president of the college.
He is a regular accompanist for the RSCM Voices South Choir, the Dubai Singers and Dubai
Chamber Choir at Christ Church in Jebel Ali.

Career at Dubai Airport :

Paul joined Dubai Airports as its first CEO in October 2007. A year later, on 14 October, Paul
was instrumental in the flawless launch of Terminal 3 at DXB and on 27 June 2010 successfully
opened the Emirate’s second airport, DWC. He achieved another milestone in Dubai’s aviation
history on 2 January 2013 with the opening of Concourse A, the world’s first purpose-built A380
facility and again with Concourse D on February 24, 2016. Paul also oversaw the opening of the
passenger terminal at DWC on 27 October 2013. On December 20, 2018, Paul joined Dubai
Airports’ Chairman HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum in welcoming DXB’s billionth
passenger.

Under Paul’s leadership, Dubai Airports successfully managed the Covid-19 crisis –
acknowledged by the world’s aviation and airline industry as a challenge unprecedented in
history, and DXB became one of the first airports to welcome back international tourists. He led
the teams at DXB and DWC to support a massive repatriation operation in close coordination
with diplomatic missions, UAE authorities, airlines, and other service partners to help nearly half
a million people get back to their homes during the first global lockdown in 2020. Paul played a
crucial role in the recovery of DXB’s operations and growth through travel corridor
arrangements with several key markets as well as by lobbying the industry to push for
standardised testing-based travel protocols. Paul spearheaded a campaign to keep the hibernating
parts of the airport ready for reopening at very short notice which resulted in the timely and
smooth reopening of Terminal 1 and Concourse D in June 2021 and the airport's return to 100
per cent operational capacity with the reopening of Concourse A in November 2021.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Paul was Managing Director of London’s Gatwick Airport. Before
joining airport operator BAA in 2004, he spent 14 years with the Virgin Group, working closely
with Sir Richard Branson as a Board Director of the Virgin Travel Group, responsible for the
commercial activities of both Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Trains.