Move over, faintly disturbing #lampbear: Doha airport, the hub for Qatar Airways, is planning a major expansion despite growing concerns about overcapacity in the region.
The aim is to make Hamad International Airport, in its own words, “more than a gateway”.
It’s important to remember that Qatar-the-state treats its airport and airline like an exercise in public diplomacy, which is the principal reason why it likes to have the very best of everything.
Hence the upgrade, despite the regional political and aviation context.
Our ultimate aim at #HIAQatar is to become more than a gateway. We are a destination in our own!
Engr. Badr Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at #HIAQatar #HIAQatarExpansion pic.twitter.com/dzsOKf2DMb— Hamad Int'l Airport (@HIAQatar) October 22, 2019
To understand the plans, take a look at the shape of the airport’s terminal. In essence, it combines an upside-down T with a Y.
Concourse A is to the left of the main center atrium, with Concourse B on its right, and together they make up the crossbar of the upside-down T.
Concourse C is the span between A+B and the arms of the Y-shaped concourses D (on the left) and E (on the right). Concourse C spans roughly half a kilometre which the airport estimates as a nine-minute walk or a 90-second trip on the airport train (which is actually a horizontal cablecar)
The basic plan is first to create a second center atrium at the junction between concourses C, D and E.
Confusingly, the airport is talking about its expansion using the letters A and B, despite the actual expansion involving concourses D and E. No, I don’t understand either.
“The second phase of HIA’s expansion consists of Phase A and B. Phase A of the current expansion will comprise of the central concourse linking concourses D and E,” the airport says.
“Construction is to commence by early 2020 and will increase the airport’s capacity to more than 53 million passengers annually by 2022.”
It’s not entirely clear how a bunch of shops, a new lounge and a forest increases passenger numbers in this first phase.
Perhaps there will also be some expansion of other areas to add bus gate space for when the next phase starts or some rearrangement as the airline’s Airbus A380 fleet departs, removing the necessity for the ultra-large gates?
On to the second phase.
“Phase B, which will be completed after 2022, will extend concourses D and E to further enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million passengers annually,” says the airport.
So, essentially, the plan is to create another swanky space full of stores and lounges where the arms of the Y meet starting next year.
Cue the lofty superlatives: “a spectacular 10,000 sqm indoor tropical garden in a central concourse”, “a 268 sqm water feature which will be the focal point of the expansion project”, and “9,000 sqm of world-class Al Mourjan lounge located above the retail space with dramatic views looking towards the tropical garden”.
The Al Mourjan, for those playing along at home, is the business-class-for-business-class-booked-passengers lounge at Doha, and this will roughly double the space in this category — useful since the current one gets very busy at peak transit times.
In terms of the gate expansion starting in 2022, some of these spaces are already being used as bus gates. Take a look at the Google satellite image: these look like stands that can vary between widebody and narrowbody aircraft, which is, of course, smart in the current unstable global climate (and especially given regional geopolitics).
It looks to me as if the airport can add eleven widebody gates to each of concourses D and E, and/or a correspondingly larger number of narrowbody gates.
This is all notional, of course, and the details are still scant. It will, nonetheless, be fascinating to see just how flexible the airport can be once the concrete is poured, the steel welded and the glass installed.
