Al Maktoum International Airport , also known as Dubai World Central, is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

Jebel Ali Jebel Ali () is a port town south-west of Dubai. The Jebel Ali Port is located there. Al Maktoum International Airport has been constructed just outside the port area. Jebel Ali is connected to Dubai via the UAE Exchange (formerly Jebel Al ...

, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that opened on 27 June 2010. Located southwest of the city of

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, it is the main part of Dubai South, a planned residential, commercial and logistics complex. When fully completed (not before 2035), the airport will contain transport modes, logistics, and value-added services, including manufacturing and assembly, in a single

free economic zone A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re- exported under specific customs regulation and generally not subjec ...

. It will cover an area of . The airport has a projected annual capacity of of freight and between 160 million and 260 million passengers. , only a handful of airlines operated passenger services out of Al Maktoum International Airport with a focus on freight activity.

Emirates Emirates may refer to: * United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective ...

plans to use the airport as its only hub once the first expansion is complete.

Dubai International Airport Dubai International Airport () is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the world's busiest airport by international passenger traffic as of 2024. It is also the busiest airport in the Middle East as ...

will be shut down once Al Maktoum Airport expansion is completed.

History

Construction

The runway was completed in 2007 after 600 days of construction with tests planned over the following six to eight months in order to fulfill its CAT III-C requirements. Construction of the airport's cargo terminal, the Al Maktoum Airport Cargo Gateway, which cost around US$75 million, was 50% complete by the end of 2008. During the first phase of the project, the airport was planned to handle around of cargo per year, with the possibility of increasing to . The passenger terminal at this phase was designed to have a capacity of 5 million passengers per year. It was planned to be the largest airport in the world in terms of freight handled, moving up to per year in 2013. The project was originally expected to be fully operational by 2017, although the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

subsequently postponed the completion of the complex to 2027. Previous working names for the airport complex have included "Jebel Ali International Airport", "Jebel Ali Airport City", and "Dubai World Central International Airport". The airport was eventually named the Al Maktoum International Airport after the

House of Maktoum The House of Maktoum ( ') is the ruling royal family of the Emirate of Dubai, and one of the six ruling families of the United Arab Emirates. The family is a branch of the Bani Yas clan (a lineage the family shares with the Al Nahyan dynasty ...

which rules the Emirate of Dubai. The total cost of the airport has been estimated by the Dubai government to be $82 billion.

Operations

Al Maktoum International Airport opened on 24 June 2010 with one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

and only cargo flights. The first flight into the airport occurred on 20 June 2010, when an

Emirates SkyCargo Emirates SkyCargo () is a cargo airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. As of 2020, it is the fourth largest cargo airline worldwide in terms of the total freight tonne-kilometres flown and international freight tonne-kilometres flown. Em ...

Boeing 777F The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long haul, long-range Wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The 777 is the world's largest twinjet and the mo ...

landed after a flight from Hong Kong. The flight served as a test for various functions such as air traffic control, movement of aircraft on the ground, and security. According to Emirates, the flight was an "unmitigated success". On 24 February 2011, the airport was certified to handle passenger aircraft with up to 60 passengers. The first passenger aircraft touched down on 28 February 2011, an Airbus A319CJ. The airport officially opened for passenger flights on 26 October 2013 with

Flynas Flynas (stylized flynas; ), formerly Nas Air, is a private Saudi low-cost airline "joint-stock company". It is the first low-cost airline in Saudi Arabia. The company's headquarters are located in Riyadh. It operates more than 1,500 flights pe ...

and

Wizz Air {{Infobox airline , airline = Wizz Air Holdings Plc. , IATA = , ICAO = , callsign = , aoc = , hubs = , focus_cities = , frequent_flyer = {{ubl, class=nowrap , Wizz All You Can Fly , Wizz Discount Club , Wizz Privilege Pass , ...

as the two carriers to operate from the airport. In the first quarter of 2014, 102,000 passengers went through the airport. At the time of its opening, three cargo service airlines served Al Maktoum International Airport, including RUS Aviation, Skyline Air and Aerospace Consortium. Fifteen additional airlines then signed a contract to operate flights to the airport. Passenger numbers in the first half of 2016 totaled 410,278, up from 209,989 in the first half of 2015. Low usage of the facility led to it being described as a

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, ...

Expansion plans

On 28 April 2024,

announced that the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, had approved a major expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport with the construction of a new 128 billion AED ($34.85 billion USD) passenger terminal. When complete, the airport is expected to be the largest in the world at roughly five times the size of the existing Dubai International Airport with capacity for up to 260 million passengers. Plans call for the airport to include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates. All

and

Flydubai Dubai Aviation Corporation (), doing business as flydubai (), is an Emirati government-owned airline based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The airline mainly operates out of Terminal 2 at Dubai International Airport, though some flights fly out ...

operations are expected to be transferred to the new airport once completed. Dubai World Central Airport 2 Imresolt

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter services to and from Al Maktoum International:

Cargo

References

External links

* * {{authority control Airports in the United Arab Emirates Transport in Dubai