Desert Valley International Airport

**Desert Valley International Airport**, officially named **Desert Valley-Henry Meyer International Airport**, is an international airport that serves the entire Desert Valley territory of The Samuel Country. The airport opened on January 9, 2021 and is a hub for Samuelian Airlines and its regional subsidiary Samuelian Connect.

## History

Construction of Desert Valley International Airport began on July 5, 2020 with Phase 1A after the airport has been proposed as early as August 2019 alongside SGV. The contractor for the megaproject and the subsequent reclamation project was originalcement after its experience of designing and building cruise terminals, airports and terraforming any biome. The airport was planned to be built in three phases:

* **Phase 1:** Opening of the Main Terminal, Concourses A and B, DVI APM and Runway 09/27
* **Phase 2:** Expansion of Concourse A
* **Phase 3:** Opening of Concourse C, Control Tower, Runway 18/36 and Expansion of DVI APM

The airport was initially expected to open on October 17, 2020, but was delayed a few times to January 9, 2021. To make way for the airport’s runway, a stretch of the Desert Valley River had to be rerouted as part of the DVI River Reclamation project and was completed on November 15, 2020. Phase 1A was finally completed on January 2, 2021 at 8:31AM UTC, when the last block was placed. This marked the end of 188 days of construction. Construction on Phase 1B began and ended on the next day. Due to Phase 1B being completed faster than planned, Phase 1A and 1B were merged to form Phase 1, which was the first phase to open.

DVI officially opened as part of a 15-minute grand opening ceremony on January 9, 2021, with the official name revealed. Subway World Express SK310 was the first to depart DVI while Samuelian Airlines MM005 was the first to land at DVI.

On February 12, 2021, construction work on Phase 2 and preparations for the construction of Phase 3 commenced. Phase 2 opened on March 15, 2021, even though no flights started to depart from the 6 new gates.

Construction works on Phase 3 commenced on June 21, 2022, after several delays. However, all construction work was temporarily suspended on July 4, 2022 by President Fluffy Dragon to relocate workers to fix the damages incurred in Desert Valley Village, only for work to resume the following day due to lag spikes in the latter. Phase 3 is scheduled to be fully completed in August 2023.

## Facilities

### Terminal

The airport’s terminal complex consists of a main terminal connected to Concourse A. There are two concourses in Phases 1 and 2 which have a total of 20 gates with 5 more gates in the new Concourse C for international flights opening in Phase 3.

**Concourse A** opened alongside Phase 1 on January 9, 2021. Samuelian Airlines and its subsidiary Samuelian Connect occupies this concourse.

**Concourse B** opened alongside Phase 1 on January 9, 2021. Airlines assigned to this concourse are Samuelian Airlines and Subway World Express. A 10th gate at the concourse, Gate B10, was planned, but later scrapped due to space constraints and a new gate at Concourse A was planned instead to open in Phase 2.

An infield concourse for international flights, **Concourse C**, is currently under construction as part of Phase 3, designed by originalcement.

### Automated People Mover (APM)

The **DVI Automated People Mover** is an APM system which connects the three concourses to the Main Terminal. The system consists of two lines, Red and Green Lines.

 Main Terminal
 C Gates

## Airlines and destinations

 Subway World Express | Nelson-Gesop (suspended)
 IntraAir | *Segville-International* | C

## Shops

DVI has an ample assortment of shops, F&B and airline lounges with 6 shops opening in Concourse A for Phase 1. Originally, only 3 shops were planned to open in Phase 1A, with the last 3 shops and the Samuelian Airlines Lazuli lounge opening in Phase 1B but due to a change of plans, all shops planned for Phase 1 opened on January 9, 2021. Units A-07 to A-09 opened with Phase 2 on March 15, 2021.

### Concourse A

* #A-01: Redstone Supply Store
* #A-02: Bobby’s Q (Wuster’s Burgers)
* #A-03: YQ Bookworm
* #A-04: AstroSlurp
* #A-05: Shuttle Travel Agencies
* #A-06: Samuelian Duty Free
* #A-07: VACANT
* #A-08: VACANT
* #A-09: BurgerQueen
* Lounge: Lazuli lounge (Samuelian Airlines)

## Accidents and incidents

* On February 13, 2021, part of Concourse B at the airport exploded, bursting it into flames. Luckily, the emergency response services managed to extinguish the fire seconds after it exploded. The airport was closed for a couple of minutes before re-opening.