260 million passengers a year and more than 32 billion euros of investment . The new airport Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai will be the largest in the world and this is all that is known about it so far.
Dubai’s new airport will span 70 square kilometres and feature 400 gates and five parallel runways, as well as state-of-the-art technology to maximise efficiency. The facility is expected to handle 12 million tonnes of cargo per year.
The project represents a massive expansion of the existing Al Maktoum Airport, located more than 30 kilometres southwest of Dubai. Opened in 2010, Al Maktoum was originally built for cargo flights, but by 2022 it is estimated to have handled 877,400 passengers. Once completed, the new “airport city” will be more than five times the size of the current one and its scale will be impressive, to say the least.
Last year, Dubai International Airport (DXB) handled 86.9 million passengers, retaining its title as the world’s busiest international hub for the 10th consecutive year. At the same time, tourism in the emirate is on the rise, with 17.15 million international arrivals last year, up from 16.73 million visitors in 2019, according to Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism . The expansion of the new airport is therefore expected to meet the needs of DXB – in fact, it is planned to completely replace Dubai International Airport within ten years.
“It will be done in phases, because that is where our future growth will be. When it reaches full capacity, it will be able to accommodate up to 260 million passengers a year. (By comparison, Dubai International has raised its forecast to 91.8 million guests by 2024, up from the all-time high of 89.1 million recorded in 2018),” Issam Kazim, director general of the Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing , told Forbes .
Another must of this pharaonic work is that it is right next to one of the largest port operators, DP world . “Our hub is about connecting not only people, but also goods. We work to better meet the needs of companies,” said Kazim.
