Dubai International just grows and grows

Dubai International airport has predicted it will become the busiest airport in the world for international passenger traffic as early as 2015, when numbers are projected to exceed 75 million.

Paul Griffiths, Dubai Airports CEO, said the forecast was "based on the current pace of growth we are seeing in other large international airports".

To help accommodate the growth, Dubai International Concourse 3, which will be the world's first dedicated A380 facility, is set to open at the end of 2012.

Dubai World Central-Al Maktoum International, which opened for cargo operations in 2010, will commence passenger services during 2012.

Dubai Airports projects that by 2020 passenger numbers will reach 98.5 million.

Since 2005 traffic at Dubai International has almost doubled from 24.8 million to 47.2 million last year.

"Increased liberalisation, GDP growth and increasingly affluent and mobile populations in emerging markets will combine to propel air travel growth worldwide," said Griffiths.