Dubai considers restarting $33bn airport project
7 April 2023

Dubai is considering plans for restarting the emirate’s largest construction project, the AED120bn ($33bn) expansion of Al-Maktoum International airport.
According to sources close to the project, talks among officials connected with the project are continuing in the background. Potential stakeholders with a key role in completing the scheme have been informally told to be prepared as the scheme is expected to restart.
The return of Dubai’s largest construction project will be a major boost for the emirate’s economy, which while buoyant, is not producing the same volume of construction work as in the past.
READ MORE: The GCC’s top future airport projects
A rebound in traffic numbers has strengthened the outlook for the expansion. Dubai International airport handled 66.1 million passengers in 2022. While this is below the 86.4 million passengers recorded in 2019, growing monthly numbers mean Dubai expects 78 million to use the airport in 2023 before returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2024.
One of the key future challenges for Dubai international airport is runway capacity. It only has two runways, and as aircraft movements increase, it is expected to reach maximum capacity. The trend is expected to accelerate further as Emirates airline starts operating smaller Airbus A350 planes with fewer seats, which will mean more aircraft movements.
Regional competition
Another challenge is regional competition. Dubai is the region’s largest airport and Emirates is the region’s largest airline. That position is now challenged by plans in Saudi Arabia. At the end of last year, it launched the masterplan for King Salman International airport in Riyadh, which aims to accommodate up to 120 million passengers by 2030 and 185 million by 2050. Earlier this year, it launched a new airline known as Riyadh Air.
READ MORE: Saudi Arabia raises aviation stakes
The expansion of Al-Maktoum International airport, also known as Dubai World Central (DWC), was officially launched in 2014. It involves building the biggest airport in the world by 2050, with the capacity to handle 255 million passengers a year. An initial phase, which was due to be completed in 2030, will take the airport’s capacity to 130 million passengers a year.
Altogether, the development will cover an area of 56 square kilometres.
Tendering activity
Progress on the project slipped as the region grappled with the impact of lower oil prices and Dubai focused on developing the Expo 2020 site. Tendering for work on the project then stalled with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020.
Firms were competing for the estimated $2.7bn substructure contract for Concourse 1 and the West Terminal building – the largest contract tendered for the project.
The contract covers the delivery of more than 1.7 million square metres of connected basement footprint. It will house the people-mover tunnels, baggage handling systems, ground services road network and other back-of-house technical and support facilities.
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Kuwait receives bids for Al-Khairan phase one IWPP2 June 2026

Two developer consortiums have submitted bids for the first phase of Kuwait’s Al-Khairan independent water and power producer (IWPP) project, according to a source.
Bids were received by the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (Kapp) on 1 June.
The facility will have a capacity of 1,800MW and 150,000 cubic metres a day of desalinated water. It will be located in Al-Khairan, adjacent to the Al-Zour South thermal plant.
The bidders include:
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The Al-Khairan IWPP is being procured by Kapp in partnership with the Ministry of Electricity, Water & Renewable Energy (MEWRE).
The main contract was tendered last September. Three consortiums and two individual companies were previously prequalified to participate in the tender.
Ernst & Young, BNP Paribas, AtkinsRealis and Addleshaw Goddard are financial advisers on the project. Chadbourne & Parke is acting as legal adviser.
The winning bidder will sign a set of public-private partnership agreements covering financing, design, construction, operation and transfer of the project. The energy conversion and water-purchase agreement is expected to cover a 25-year supply period.
Future phases
The Al-Khairan IWPP project is expected to run on low-sulphur fuel oil as the primary fuel and to accommodate crude oil, gas oil and natural gas as backup fuels. Future phases will further expand capacity.
It is understood that the estimated $750m second phase of the Al-Khairan IWPP project will add a further 1,800MW of generation capacity through a combined-cycle gas-fired power plant.
The project, first mooted over a decade ago, remains in the early development stages, with no plans currently to advance to procurement in 2026, a source said.
According to the source, the immediate focus is on advancing plans for the 3,600MW Nuwaiseeb power and water desalination IWPP project.
The Nuwaiseeb IWPP plant will have a desalination capacity of 75 million imperial gallons a day.
Kapp plans to release a transaction advisory tender for the project by the end of the year.
> Be recognised among the best in the industry at the MEED Projects Awards 2026 …
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Doosan confirms Saudi Jafurah 2 cogen contract2 June 2026
South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility has confirmed it has signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth about $556m for the second phase of the Jafurah combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Saudi Arabia.
The project is being developed by Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) in partnership with Saudi Aramco.
Doosan said the contract covers design, equipment supply, installation, construction and commissioning of the facility.
The Jafurah CHP phase 2 project will be built near the Jafurah gas field, about 400 kilometres east of Riyadh. Once operational, it will generate 330MW of electricity and produce 465 tonnes of steam an hour for the nearby gas field.
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The Jafurah gas development is part of Aramco’s $3.2bn unconventional resources programme, which aims to develop shale gas in three areas. Jafurah lies southeast of Ghawar, the world’s largest conventional oil field.
The programme is part of Riyadh’s plans under Vision 20230 to ensure the kingdom remains self-sufficient in gas supply amid rising demand from the residential and industrial power sectors.
Jafurah phase one
In February 2025, MEED exclusively reported that talks were under way to expand the capacity of the $500m Jafurah cogeneration independent steam and power plant (ISPP).
Construction works were completed on the facility last November.
At the time of its procurement, the plant’s first phase was to have a power capacity of 270-320MW, and a low-pressure (LP) steam demand of 77-166 thousand pounds an hour (klb/hr) and high-pressure (HP) steam demand of 29-126 klb/hour by 2023.
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The oil giant issued the letter of award to Kepco for the contract to develop the Jafurah ISPP scheme in July 2022.
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Al-Mabanee submits lowest bids for Kuwait infrastructure2 June 2026
Kuwait’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) has opened commercial bids for two major infrastructure and public buildings packages at South Al-Mutlaa Residential City.
Local firm Al-Mabanee United Company has emerged as the lowest bidder for both contracts, submitting combined offers worth KD44m. Both packages entail the construction, completion and maintenance of services, infrastructure works and public buildings for different district centres within the city.
The first contract covers the infrastructure and public buildings for the N3 District Centre. PAHW received proposals from eight bidders, with Al-Mabanee United Company submitting the lowest price at KD20.9m. The second-lowest offer was submitted by The Contractor General Trading & Contracting Company at KD22.4m, followed by Golden Engineering Group for General Trading & Contracting at KD22.7m, though Golden Engineering Group was flagged for not providing a bid bond.
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Local developer secures finance for three Riyadh projects2 June 2026
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