Dubai aims to construct the world’s largest airport. Here’s the latest update

In October 2013, a Wizz Air A320 flying in from Budapest made history as the first commercial flight to land at Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as Dubai World Central (DWC).

This newly built ‘greenfield’ airport, located about 20 miles southwest of downtown Dubai, was envisioned to be the largest and busiest airport in the world in the not-too-distant future. The goal is to establish a cutting-edge mega-hub that will secure Dubai’s place as a global economic powerhouse without facing capacity limitations.

Dubai Airports, the governing body of both Dubai International (DXB) and the new airport, asserts that upon completion, Al Maktoum International will accommodate over 160 million passengers annually and handle 12 million tonnes of freight.

To put that into perspective, this is nearly 63 million more passengers than Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International, the world’s busiest airport, handled in 2022, and almost 100 million more than Dubai International. Keep in mind, DXB is already the busiest airport globally outside the US and serves as Dubai’s primary international gateway.

A decade and a pandemic later, and 13 years since it opened for cargo operations, Dubai’s newest airport remains very much a work in progress.

DWC has carved out a niche as a hub for aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). It also hosts a range of air cargo services, including Emirates Cargo, and handles private jets and some charter flights.

However, scheduled passenger flights are mostly limited to low-cost carriers operating routes to Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

So, what’s the latest with those ambitious plans? When can we expect a timeline or fresh designs?

‘The airport of the future’

The 2023 Dubai Air Show, held at a specially designed venue at Al Maktoum International Airport, provided some fascinating glimpses into the future of DWC and revealed key elements of Dubai Airports' long-term vision.

"We have focused on expanding and investing in DXB to cater to our customers' needs and future plans," says Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, speaking to Dinogo. "This will continue until we reach full capacity."

The strategy is to optimize the existing capacity at DXB by applying innovative technologies and space redesigns, which will add an additional 20 million passengers to DXB’s current annual capacity of 100 million.

"This expansion will not only accommodate short-term growth, but also give us the time we need to plan the phased development of DWC. We project 86.8 million passengers in 2023, with 88.2 million and 93.8 million expected in 2024 and 2025, respectively," he adds.

Griffiths has been cautious about committing to a timeline, but in November 2023, he told AFP that once capacity is reached, "we will need a new airport… that will have to happen sometime in the 2030s."

"DWC is an exciting prospect," Griffiths shared with Dinogo in January this year. "The future Phase 2 development offers a tremendous opportunity to build from scratch in line with Dubai’s broader ambitions and growth plans."

At the air show, Griffiths revealed that plans for the new mega-airport are already underway, though the large-scale model displayed at the event, featuring six parallel runways and three massive terminals, is already several years old.

Reimagining the business model

However, Griffiths teased Business Traveller magazine with an exciting idea for a modular approach to gradually expand DWC, with a timeline that could stretch into the 2050s. “We are not designing an airport with terminals,” he explained. “We’re revolutionizing the airport business model, making it more personalized and eliminating outdated processes that have burdened our customers for too long.”

The airport will be a key part of the larger Dubai South project, a vision for a brand-new city sprawling across a 145-square-kilometer desert area just south of Dubai.

This entire new district, parts of which are already under construction, will feature eight neighborhoods, each dedicated to a specific industry or activity, blending residential and commercial spaces.

The real turning point will occur when Dubai’s aviation giants, Emirates and its smaller partner flyDubai, make the move to the new airport from their current base at Dubai International. Although this relocation has long been planned, there is still no confirmed timeline.

Nadine Itani, program leader for air transport management at the University of Surrey in England, suggests that Emirates’ shift to DWC is more than just a move across terminals.

"It’s a strategic repositioning in response to the evolving dynamics of global air travel and trade," explains Itani. She points out that Dubai’s investment in DWC as a future mega-hub is part of a broader regional trend, as countries compete to build large-scale airports and secure their place in the global aviation race.

The region’s major airlines are not just aiming to capture a larger share of global travel and position their cities as trade hubs, but are also increasingly focusing on becoming tourist destinations themselves. New, state-of-the-art airports will help drive these ambitions.

"There’s been a noticeable shift in Dubai’s incoming traffic, with fewer connecting passengers and more originating passengers, alongside an expected rise in logistics and transport activity, thanks to Dubai’s central role in global trade agreements like the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor," says Itani.

Opened in 2014, Hamad International Airport in neighboring Qatar, a direct competitor to Dubai in the long-haul travel market, is preparing to boost its capacity to over 60 million passengers annually.

At the northern end of the Gulf, Kuwait International Airport is constructing a new terminal designed by the acclaimed British architectural firm Foster+Partners. The terminal will initially accommodate 25 million passengers per year, with potential to expand to 50 million in the future.

Located just 20 miles from downtown Dubai, Sharjah International Airport, primarily serving low-cost carrier Air Arabia, is also increasing its annual passenger capacity to 20 million.

In addition to the launch of a new international airline, Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabia’s capital is also building a massive new airport. Riyadh’s future six-runway facility will be constructed on the same site as the current one, fully replacing it. The new airport will handle 185 million passengers per year, nearly seven times the number processed in 2022.

With the race for dominance in global airport rankings heating up, the competition has never been fiercer.