The world’s largest airport will launch with freighter operations in four months time with passenger operations being introduced at a later date, Paul Griffiths said.

“The freighter operation clearly will give us a good test of the operational facilities, the runway, the control tower and air traffic control. But we are not committing at this point in time to a definite date for passenger operations. But it will be at some stage in the future after the freighters have started [operations],” he told the paper.

Mattar Al Tayer, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of RTA said that the contractor of the Dubai Metro Project; Dubai Rail Link (DURL) Consortium; is set to complete all the remaining works on the Red Line (18 stations) on 25 April 2010.

All works in the stations on the Metro's Green Line will be completed in August 2011, he added.

Major General Mohammad Ahmad Al Merri, Director General of the Residency and Foreigners Affairs Department in Dubai, told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that tourism in Dubai and the UAE is thriving.

"Tourists are still flooding the emirate and the number of tourist visas issued is increasing. In January, the demand for tourist visas and visas issued on arrival was on the rise. We issued 411,774 tourist visas compared to 406,935 during the same period last year," Major General Al Merri said.

"I can tell you that the tourism sector is peaking."