- Dubai wants to spend $35 billion over the next 10 years to build an airport with 400 gates and five runways.
- The emirate says the facility will carry 260 million passengers, the most in the world.
- It is the heart of Dubai South, the emirate’s ambitious planned city of 1 million people.
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Dubai is embarking on a major expansion of its airport, which will be five times the size of its current international hub.
Emirati Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said the improved Al Maktoum International Airport will be the world’s largest with a capacity of 260 million passengers.
“We will build new projects for future generations and ensure the continued and stable growth of our children and their children,” Sheikh Mohammed said. I wrote it in X’s post. “Dubai will become the world’s airport, seaport, urban hub and new world capital.”
By comparison, Hartfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s busiest airport in 2023. The number of passengers in the same year was 104.6 million.
Currently, most international flights operate from Dubai International Airport, which served approximately 87 million passengers in 2023.
However, all operations there will be moved to the Al Maktoum facility, which will have five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, Sheikh Mohammed said.
He estimated construction costs at 128 billion dirhams ($35 billion) over 10 years and said the emirate would build “an entire city around the airport” with expected housing needs for 1 million people.
Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as Dubai World Central, Opened in 2010 with one terminal. Like Dubai International Airport, it has two runways, but they are used much less frequently.
The airport is designed as the centerpiece of Dubai South, a planned special economic zone that aims to accommodate one million residents and provide 500,000 jobs in an area of 55 square miles.
The announcement comes as air travel in Dubai returns to pre-pandemic levels. The number of overseas overnight guests in 2023 will be 17.15 million.