In 2024, plans were formalized for a major expansion to Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport, which will replace Dubai International Airport, and will become Emirates’ new home. There hasn’t been much clarity regarding the timeline with which this project will be completed, but we’re now getting more of a sense of that.
Continue reading: Dubai Al Maktoum Airport Will Be World’s Biggest By 2032, Home To Emirates
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Hopefully they have plans for a proper passenger transit system between ALL the terminals. DXB is currently poor and the other big airport in the region - IST - is even worse.
Atlanta will be expanding further to maintain its record as the largest. Airport property growing by 22.7% in 2027.
Middle East air transportation is far more competitive than when EK set up shop so lots of airports are gunning for the growth traffic that DWC wants to capture.
Most of the numbers for the new airport are impressive but at least two US airports already have 5 parallel runways - ATL and DFW. DFW and DEN have more runways than ATL but ATL has proven crosswind runways aren't necessary for air transport operations at least in N. Georgia.
Dirty and trashy area of the world , similar to Pakistan .
Marginally better than Bangladesh or Afghanistan .
Won't it make better sense to have 1-2 headhouses and terminals rather that multiple concourses? Something along the lines of 2 Hong Kong like terminals, but longer.
Having flown through DXB, I will concede that it's a bit shabby in various areas, so DWC will be a nice upgrade.
That being said, does Emirates really think it can grow at this level continuously to need all the capacity?
Seats flown in the world have never been higher, more and more airlines are expanding and ramping up. QR, Etihad, and more airlines are also stepping up.
At some point Emirates' growth will level off and they'll be sitting with a new airport that they don't need all that extra space for.
Regardless, I expect Emirates to open up an arrivals lounge, even QR also has one. Especially if Emirates is supposed to be the gateway funnel to growing Dubai as a city, an arrivals lounge will enable this even more.
There is a real risk here that the airport will become too big to be a great passenger experience.
While the fairly new IST airport looks lovely, it can easily take 45+ minutes from landing to reaching the gate and if your connecting flight is leaving from the other side of the terminal, it could be another 30+ minutes to walk to your gate. I wouldn't dream of booking a connection through IST of less than 100 minutes for this reason whereas I wouldn't hesitate to book this connection through AUH, DOH or SIN.
If DWC is even bigger than IST, it may mean that any connection under 120 minutes is not advisable. At this point, what is the benefit of this airport to the passenger? Will they want their travel times to be longer just to experience it, or would they instead choose smaller airports with easier connections?
ORD has the most runways (8, 6 are parallel) of any commercial airport worldwide.
Actually, no, TOTAL nonsense. Compare GDP and HDI of Dubai to USA. GDP is 15% higher and HDI 12.8% higher.
My sense is that they have a lot of smart people planning and deciding. And, we amateurs have nothing but opinions.
Just you wait till India and Indian airlines get their act together and the M3 can no longer use its potential millions as a catchment. Will see then how well this strategy build works out.
Yep, new fashion for mega airports seems to be: do not install internal mass transit and let people go on a 5 km hike on hard floors to get to their gates. That helps with monetisation I guess.
Say what you want I like, I like LHR's T5 layout better with the parallel satellites and the people mover connecting them. I would like it even better if the main terminal building was in the middle.
The issue is that airport layout design has become a nickel and diming optimisation rather than an exercise in logistics.
ME airlines have realized that pax accept 3h connections as safety margin and most of the time that time is used to extract currency from them. Latest airport layouts reflect this reality. You don't even see rolling walkways to help reduce the walking distance.
"Just you wait till India and Indian airlines get their act together." Ha. Hell will freeze over before that happens.
Flew on those World Cup shuttles to Qatar in 2022. Definitely need to see more of it.
IST is one massive terminal, which is what makes it such an awful airport. The new Dubai airport will have multiple terminals, like most airports.
while dxb is showing its age, I will definitely miss the current location of it. there's nothing quite like having a major international airport in the heart of the city. seeing beautiful a380s and 777s taking off and landing will be missed.
Last time I flew INDIA AIRLINES, I found a Dookie in the seatback pocket! So disgusting.
Why are you obsessed with Izlam culture? It's called Dubai World Central. I just find it all so odd how the author really enjoys talking about Muzlims and Izlam.
I frequently visit that airport for the Miles & More points run, but it's now a truly isolated airport in the middle of nowhere... Even all the gates are bus stands...
Will they actually manage it by that time? Personally, I'm negative about it, considering how many times the schedule has been delayed... And even if it were possible, the fact that it's incredibly far from Dubai's main centres is a serious problem...
I'm pretty sure I haven't got sufficient years left to
"wait till India and Indian airlines get their act together".
You'd need to be a new-born to see that happen.
What happens when you land at say Terminal 1 from Mumbai and your connection takes off from Terminal 3 to Boston.
Having multiple times doesn't give it an advantage. I imagine that Emirates and flydubai will hold about 75% of all traffic which will no doubt have to spread their operations across multiple terminals.
A higher portion of Hongkong passengers are O/D
Dubai, most especially the new airport will have a higher portion of its traffic as connecting passengers.
Heashouse usually feature checkin area and security which connecting passengers don't need.
Good planning, but what will they do with such a massive adjacent redundant airport? (current DXB that is)
Swap the roles and have that be the cargo + parking space airfield?