All around the world new airports are being built and existing airports enlarged in countries which appear to realise that the supposed ‘climate crisis’ and the need for Net Zero are just a load of nonsense.
The largest new airport project is probably in Dubai. Within 10 years Dubai’s main airport will move to a new desert mega-hub, projected to be the busiest on the planet. Located 28 miles south-west of Dubai, Al Maktoum International Airport will have the largest capacity of any on Earth, with the potential to carry up to 260 million passengers per year.
It will replace the existing Dubai International Airport, already the busiest in the world for international traffic, handling 87 million passengers in 2023. Given that the Dubaians are increasing the capacity of their airport from 87 million passengers a year to a massive 260 million passengers a year, it doesn’t look like they’re too worried about what the world’s greatest climatologist, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, calls “global boiling”. Just to put Dubai’s planned 260 million passengers a year capacity into context, Heathrow handles about 80 million passengers a year, Gatwick around 40 million, Manchester about 29 million and Birmingham just over 11 million.
In 2022, six new freight airports and 29 new general-purpose airports were built on the Chinese mainland, bringing respective totals to 254 and 399, according to a report from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Moreover, an average of eight new airports are expected to open in the country every year for the foreseeable future, while more existing facilities are being expanded and upgraded.
Noida International Airport in Uttar Pradesh’s Jewar is set to be India’s largest when it is finally complete. Switzerland’s Zürich Airport International is in charge of building the project, worth an estimated $4 billion, with operations due to start in 2024. To begin with, it will open with a single runway and terminal building, with a capacity of 12 million passengers a year. But later phases of the construction could see capacity extend to 70 million passengers a year.
Poland is planning to build what has been billed as the country’s largest airport and one of the largest in Europe in Baranow county near Warsaw. The project involves building a passenger terminal railway stations and transport hub. It will initially be able to handle 40 million passengers a year.
Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok’s main international airport) is adding two runways and a terminal, plus extending the existing terminal. This will increase its capacity to handle 150 million passengers annually, from the current 60 million. The estimated cost of this project is $3.7 billion.
Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport, used mainly by regional and budget airlines, will also undergo development, including a new terminal and building renovations. This expansion, projected to cost about $1.1 billion, will lift the airport capacity from 30 million to 50 million passengers per year by 2030.
In addition, Thailand is to start construction of its 290-billion baht ($8.8 billion) U-Tapao aviation city this year to handle over 65 million passengers a year. It involves turning the Vietnam-war-era U-Tapao airport into the third main international airport in the country. U-Tapao will link with a budget terminal, Don Muang airport, and the country’s main Suvarnabhumi airport. The project, called ‘Eastern Aviation City’ will cover 1,040 hectares and is expected to create 15,600 jobs.
Changi Airport Terminal 5 in Singapore has been designed with the “airport as a city” concept in mind, with each area a “series of neighbourhoods” with their own character. The project has required an injection of another $2 billion in investment and is estimated to cost around $10 billion in total. Construction is due to start in 2025, with the terminal operational by the mid-2030s. The project aims to add capacity of about 50 million passengers a year.
The construction of an $11 billion airport – Sangley Point international airport – in Manila Bay in the Philippines is gradually moving forward, after a consortium swooped in to bid for the work in 2021. Construction of a first runway, which is expected to take four years, will provide the airport with an annual capacity of 25 million passengers, before a second runway lifts that to 75 million.
In Vietnam construction of Vietnam’s $16 billion new airport – Long Thanh International Airport – in Ho Chi Minh City, billed as the most expensive infrastructure project in the country’s history, saw work on the runway start in late 2022. The first phase of the project involves building a new terminal and a 4km-long runway. Completion is due for 2025 and the airport will be able to handle 25 million passengers a year.
And while we’re on the subject of new airports, remember the Maldives? It’s the island chain which was supposed to disappear under the rising sea levels years ago. The Maldives is developing four new airports the largest of which is increasing annual passenger capacity from three million to 7.5 million:
Doesn’t look like the Maldives are too worried about supposed rising sea levels and ‘climate crisis’ either.
These are just a few of the many new airport projects being built around the world. Even if the U.K. wanted to build a third runway at Heathrow or to expand any other airports like Gatwick, that would probably be blocked for years by endless legal challenges from climate-catastrophist environmental groups on the grounds that increasing air travel capacity would risk derailing Britain from achieving its self-imposed, legally-binding, economically-suicidal Net-Zero targets. As for ever building a new airport anywhere in Britain – that is now unthinkable. In fact, not only are our dubious, plucked-out-of-the-air Net-Zero targets preventing us from building much needed new infrastructure like airports, roads, water reservoirs, power stations and such like, but they are also crippling our economy with some of the world’s highest energy prices, are destroying hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and associated industries as production moves to countries with lower energy prices and are driving us to national bankruptcy.
As much of the sane world builds a better future for its people, I suspect they are all laughing at our deranged Net Zero stupidity.
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
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