Dubai Duty Free to raise funds for airport expansion

This is up from the $1.1 billion originally sought following strong interest from banks, the news service reports.

Speaking at the Airport Show in Dubai, Colm McLoughlin, DDF executive vice-chairman told Gulf News that the deal is expected to be finalised in a couple of weeks. peaking on the sidelines of the Airport Show yesterday.

The expansion of Dubai airport will see the airport's capacity increase from its current 60 million passengers, to over 90 million passengers annually.  56 million passengers are expected by the end of 2012.

"When Concourse 3 opens in January next year, the capacity will reach 72 million passengers and when C4 opens leading up to 2020, the capacity will be 95 million," McLoughlin told Gulf News.

Commenting on how Dubai Airports expected to fund the future growth of Dubai airport, Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of Dubai Civil Aviation and chairman and CEO of Emirates airline and Group, said: "We will do our financing on that. The project is over a four-year period. So we are doing that at the moment."

"We are in the process of deciding on the options. When we finish, we will announce," Shaikh Ahmad said.

The UAE airports together, meanwhile, have announced billions of dollars' worth of investments in airport expansion and improvement programmes.