Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects has awarded an estimated AED10bn ($2.7bn) contract for the West Terminal substructure at Al Maktoum International airport, Emerging Travel reported on October 12.

The award moves the first phase of Dubai’s $35bn plan to build the world’s largest airport, 70 square kilometres south of the city, from design and enabling work into the main structure. The West Terminal, the second of three planned, is designed for 45 million passengers a year, against the 260 million the finished airport is meant to handle, so most contracts are still to be let. T

he airport operator said in June it would award more than AED55bn ($15bn) of construction contracts by the end of 2026, and this package takes roughly 18% of that total. Other Gulf states are also letting airport work, with Oman signing a 20-year concession for Muscat airport maintenance.

The winner is a joint venture of Beijing-based China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and Abu Dhabi-based Tristar Engineering & Construction. The seven-level terminal covers 800,000 square metres.

The terminal will connect to the airside through an automated people-mover with 14 stations at full build-out. In July, Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects awarded an estimated $1.5bn people-mover contract to a joint venture of Mitsubishi Corporation (TSE:8058) and Larsen & Toubro (NSE:LT), covering four underground stations in the first phase. Earlier awards covered enabling works, the second runway, initial structural foundations and concourse substructures.

At full build-out the airport will have five parallel runways and 430 aircraft gates, with capacity for 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo a year, five times the size of Dubai International. Coop Himmelb(l)au and Dar Al-Handasah were confirmed in 2024 as lead masterplanning and design consultants.

Packages still to come include the superstructure, the fourth concourse, the baggage-handling system, and the façade and roofing works.