First flight lands at Qatar\\\'s $15bn airport

Qatar's much-delayed new international airport, built at a cost of $15.5 billion, welcomed its first commercial flight on Wednesday. A flydubai budget airline jet carrying passengers from Dubai touched down at midday at the Hamad International Airport. The flight was preceded by a Qatar Airways plane that landed at the airport with four ministers and civil aviation officials on board. Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority chief Abdul Aziz Mohammad Al-Noaimi told AFP that the seaside airport, whose construction began in 2007 with 50,000 workers, was built at a cost $15.5 billion.