The UK’s Tuner & Townsend has been appointed as the cost consultant for the expansion of Dubai’s Al-Maktoum International airport.

Turner & Townsend said it was awarded the contract by Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP), the engineering arm of Dubai Aviation City Corporation.

DAEP has also received bids from consultants for design and supervision but has yet to award a contract.

The upgrade to the airport will make it the biggest in the world by 2050 with the capacity to handle 255 million passengers a year. The planned construction work includes the new terminal building, six nodes or concourses connected to the terminal by people movers, and new runways.

Once the first phase is complete, it will take the airport’s capacity to 130 million passengers a year and make it capable of accommodating 100 A380 aircraft at any one time. The first phase is expected to open in 2025.

The concept design for the new terminal has been completed by a team of Lebanon’s Dar al-Handasah and France’s ADPI.