Ultimate Airport Dubai

Dubai International Airport,

one of the fastest growing airports on the planet

and aiming to be number one.

Cleared for takeoff.

But perfection is never easy.

Final call, Emirates to Sydney.

Gatwick, Amsterdam.

More planes.

The flight has departed.

More passengers.

Absolutely ridiculous.

I need extra manpower here at transfer desk.

And massive construction just to keep up.

So much scaffolding everywhere. Nothing is finished.

It's nonstop. - (whistles)

If you don't love it it's just going to kill you.

24/7.

I think it's stuck.

One, two, three, push.

It's the job of 60,000 staff from all over the world...

It's either you can deliver or you're out of the building.

...to make this the ultimate airport.

Dubai International is a direct flight away

from most of the world's population and connects to 260 destinations.

Success depends on the airport working as smoothly as possible.

Turning around passengers quickly and efficiently and reducing congestion.

But the airport is operating at full stretch

with packed schedules and terminals threatening efficiency.

The only option? Expansion.

A new $3.2 billion concourse that can handle

an additional 15 million passengers a year.

The extra capacity is needed so urgently

they're opening the concourse today before much of it is finished,

which means work is being rushed.

Especially up in the all-important first-class lounges.

I want to fix these lights.

What's happening?

Dejan Busic is run ragged.

Okay, this is Phase 1. I have the same drawing for the Phase 2.

It's just the location of the lights,

which is supposed to go on the wall in the child care room.

There is some confusion in the drawings.

It's not showing the proper location.

Confusion in the plans at this point

could lead to mistakes that would set back the whole project.

Luckily Dejan's been leading the work

on the first-class lounge for 16 months

so he knows how every detail should look.

The lights supposed to come with this wall. Okay?

And then on the back wall you have the mirror, which is not a problem,

because if you have marble you can drill directly through.

Lights need to go there.

There is no...

discussion about this, okay?

It is really frustrating.

That's a very, very easy task to be checked on the time,

and due to the pressure and all that is happening every minute here,

we just slip over.

We don't have time for these things,

so part of the team will stay full night to finish now.

While much of the concourse is still a building site,

down below four gates are being pressed into service

in the first phase of opening.

The inaugural flight will take off for London Heathrow in just under two hours.

The boss of Dubai Airports, CEO Paul Griffiths,

has turned up in person for a last nervous sweep of departures,

making sure everything's ready.

Let's just check. Yeah.

Right, let's see if that works.

If the concourse doesn't work,

the reputation of both Dubai Airport and the man who runs it will suffer.

Paul is well aware of the nightmares

other international airports have faced

when they've rushed to open new terminals.

Some airports unfortunately have slightly miscalculated

what it takes to open a facility of this size

and unfortunately have lived with the legacy

of the problems they've experienced on day one for many years.

Dubai is limiting the risk

by launching only the first four of 20 gates,

but if it doesn't go perfectly today,

Paul may have to call off the next phase of opening.

If something's not right, we've got to call a halt to this process

and ultimately I've got to make that judgment call

and we're going to have to pull the plug.

What is this exactly?

No, that's not good.

We need a hoarding in front of this, don't we?

Yeah.

This is really it now, isn't it? You're actually live, yeah?

All ready to go.

Fantastic.

All we need is some passengers.

Yeah, well, you haven't got long to wait, have you?

Good luck, all right.

As the concourse goes into operation,

for Dejan, who's trying to finish the premiere lounges,

it seems to be one step forward and two steps back.

Rajif, sorry, man. I know that you were not here yesterday, but I spoke to Arun.

Man, these cutouts for the lights is not yet finished yet.

- Do you have the lights here? - Yeah, we have the lights.

Where are the lights? Can I see them?

Okay, can I see them?

- Can I see them physically? - Can you bring the lights?

Put them here.

Still the cutout is not yet finished. The top portion is not finished.

These guys cannot do the wiring. They cannot install the final lights.

I'm calling the guy from the joinery company

to come and to quickly cut out those remaining lights.

Get somebody to clean this, please.

All the cartons, sheets, and this stuff, please.

Where are you going? Are you going this side? Go.

Yes, it's a lot of small things that we need now to--

To close before tonight.

All of them.

But as you can see, the big things are going on. The guys are busy.

With the next phase of the concourse opening imminent

they're running out of time.

An airline has to run a slick operation.

Any mechanical problems can cause delays.

They have teams of engineers keeping the planes

in top condition, from engines to wheels.

Accelerations for takeoffs and the impacts

of hundreds of tons slamming down at landing

wear out tires quickly.

In the Emirates Wheel Overhaul Workshop,

engineer Hussain Abdulrahin is kept very busy.

Whatever wheel will be removed from the aircraft,

it comes to this area.

At least once every 270 flights,

every wheel on a jet is completely overhauled.

They're joined by any tire that's suffered exceptional damage.

For instance, by an aborted takeoff.

If we see this wheel,

actually is removed from A380 wheels,

due to a rejected takeoff

with full brakes.

Suddenly, some error get in the cockpit.

The aircraft with full thrust suddenly break down,

which caused this.

It's a testament to the strength of the tire

that it's still in one piece.

And to ensure the wheel itself is sound,

each part is stripped down and the aluminum hubs blast-cleaned

before a magnetic probe scans them for hairline cracks.

We must make sure there is no crack available.

Any crack found in the hub, it should be scrapped.

The wheel hub is split into two parts.

This is the nose wheel.

So you see, first we need to put the inner hub inside.

Then we put the tire. Then they put the outer.

They must be perfectly aligned and bolted together securely

to withstand huge pressures.

Aircraft tires are inflated to very high pressure,

more than six times an average car tire.

If something goes wrong,

it could blow the hub apart violently.

The gate is our safety.

This is will save the life.

Because if this burst, so the gate will save you

to not hit you and kill you.

Hussain's team assembles 28 wheels a day.

It's an expensive business.

A full set for the A380 costs $2 million.

Each wheel will be tested for leaks over the next 12 to 24 hours

before setting off on the first of

what could be 270 flights around the world.

The new Concourse A is vital to keep Dubai Airport working efficiently.

CEO Paul Griffiths is counting down

to its first ever A380 departure.

Going to start boarding shortly, are we?

Flight EK003 will be taking off for London Heathrow

in just one hour.

The first passengers have started boarding.

You almost feel like people should have party hats

or something, don't you really? Yeah.

Suzanne Al Anani, in charge of delivering the building,

is also at the launch,

watching with a mixture of pride and apprehension.

To see the passengers, the first batch of passengers, coming through,

you feel really these are very proud moments.

You know you're on the first inaugural flight from this building?

Really? Yeah.

Oh, that's wonderful, that's good. Yeah, yeah.

Very exciting. I mean, I'm more excited than the passengers even

because we built this building, you know?

However, you're very nervous because you really

have your fingers crossed that everything works.

Suzanne is right to be nervous.

One floor above the shiny new shopping area

Dejan is pushing his teams hard

to complete the massive first-class lounge.

But his to-do list just keeps getting longer.

Okay, who is busy with the bloody floor drainer?

I need to get a guy for the TV, Rajif.

The pressure on the job's really enormous

because of the very limited time and the completion target date

that we're aiming to meet.

D 98.

One of your rooms, back of house rooms, which is full of your material.