A MAJOR £28 billion project is set to transform a Dubai airport into the “world’s airport” and global hub, says the city’s leader.
Construction of a new futuristic passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport will begin immediately.
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All operations at Dubai International Airport (DXB) – currently the world’s busiest airport by international passenger traffic – will be transferred to Al Maktoum “within the next 10 years,” Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on Sunday.
The new 70km2 airport will feature 400 aircraft gates and five parallel runways and will be five times the size of DXB when completed.
It currently has only two tracks, the same as DXB.
Computer-rendered designs for the new airport showed vast white spaces with high ceilings and lots of greenery.
Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed, said on X: “Al Maktoum International Airport will be the largest in the world, with an ultimate capacity of up to 260 million passengers.”
He added: “We are preparing for a new phase in the growth of the global aviation sector.
“We are preparing for a phase in which Dubai will lead the international aviation sector for the next forty years.”
New technologies never before used in the aviation sector will also be presented at Al Maktoum.
Plans have been drawn up for an “airport city” in the south of Dubai, which will be home to “one million people” and “the world’s leading companies in the logistics and air transport sectors”.
Sheikh Mohammed said: “We are building a new blueprint for generations, ensuring continuous and stable development for our children, so that Dubai will be the airport, the port, the urban metropolis and the new cultural center of the world.”
The Covid-19 pandemic and the 2009 Sheikh economic crisis are said to have delayed the progress of DXB operations which were relocated to Al Maktoum in Dubai World Central.
Dubai and Emirates airline, the largest airline in the Middle East and the fourth largest in the world, recovered strongly and quickly after the pandemic, mainly due to its reopening to tourism in mid-2020.
Around 86.9 million passengers flew through DXB last year, up from 86.3 million in pre-pandemic 2019 and 89.1 million in 2018, which was then its busiest year ever.
Dubai announced its best-ever tourism figures in February and revealed that it welcomed 17.15 million international overnight visitors in 2023, with an average hotel occupancy of around 77 percent.
DXB, completely surrounded by residential neighborhoods and two major highways, is limited to its current size.
Al Maktoum, opened in 2010, is located about 45 kilometers from DXB and could be expanded into the empty desert surrounding it.
News of the $35bn (£28bn) project comes as Dubai recovers from the heaviest rains ever recorded in the UAE, which saw planes swimming in pools of water and flights grounded for days.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
