Airport development is sky high
As most people in the industry will be aware, airport projects are big business at the moment. Research conducted by Streamline Marketing Group found that airport development in South Asia, Africa and the Middle East has reached a new high, with projects and expansions now valued at over US$68 billion.
The Gulf countries account for $43 billion of this growth, with $21 billion worth of development under way in the UAE alone. The figures highlight massive airport expansion in Jordan, Iraq, India, Sri Lanka and across the African continent.
When looking through a list of these developments, what really jumps out is the sheer scale of so many of them. For example, heading the list, at $10 billion in value, is the new Al Maktoum International Airport at Jebel Ali, UAE, which is set to become the largest in the world, handling 120 million passengers annually. Next on the list are the developments of Abu Dhabi International Airport at $6.8 billion and Qatar's $5.5 billion New Doha International - again, serious capital investment.
Airport projects interest me because they get so much value from construction project management tools. They are a chance to work with large project teams and with top contractors and specialist consultants from around the world, and they typically generate millions of documents and correspondence items. In addition, they are built to a tight schedule and so require fast exchange of information, plus data security and document control is hugely important.
These projects tend to be at the forefront of industry good practice and there is high uptake of collaboration tools within this sector. Alongside the major casino resort projects we work on, it's hard to think of another vertical industry that can benefit so much from using construction project management software and collaboration technology.
Labels: Global trends
