The baggage handling hall at the Dubai International Airport. Dubai plans to increase annual capacity to more than 200 million people. Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo//Postmedia files

As airports in the Middle East expand, they are facing new competition: each other.

The region’s hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are on an expansion drive that will see them add hundreds of millions of passengers in the coming decade — the equivalent of at least three Heathrows.

Dubai, which was once the same size as London’s Gatwick serving around 30 million people a year, plans to increase annual capacity to more than 200 million. Istanbul is also targeting a similar level of passengers, while Saudi Arabia has ambitions to develop its own regional mega-hub through its new air

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