Dubai is to invest Dh5 billion ($1.36 billion) in a new terminal for its airport which will be able to handle 45 million passengers by 2015, said Shaikh Ahmad bin Saeed Al Maktoum, head of Dubai's Civil Aviation Department and chairman of Emirates.

Work on the new terminal, designed by France's Aeroports de Paris (ADP), will begin in 2002 and finish in 2005, by which time the airport will be able to handle 22 million passengers a year, he said. The airport's present capacity is 12.3 million passengers annually.

The new terminal at Dubai airport will be in the shape of a giant 1.2-km-long aircraft wing and will be capable of handling around 64 parked planes but will be reserved for Emirates passengers.

The airport will have a second parallel runway which can handle wide-bodied aircraft and is to be equipped with the latest technology to allow landing in zero visibility.

If growth continues into the second decade, Dubai plans to build a totally new airport near the free zone of Jebel Ali, 50 km out of town.