Dubai International Airport

Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXB, ICAO: OMDB) (Arabic: مطار دبي الدولي) is an international airport serving Dubai, the largest city of the United Arab Emirates. It is a major aviation hub in the Middle East, and is the main airport in Dubai.

Overview

Operated by the Department of Civil Aviation, it was the 27th busiest airport in the world in 2007, handling 34.34 million passengers. The airport targets 40 million for the year 2008.^[2] As of June 2008, the airport served over 100,000 passengers per day, and 120 airlines to over 205 destinations.^[2] An important contributor to the Dubai economy, 13,000 people are employed at the airport.^{citation needed} The airport accounts for over S$5.5 billion in output.^{citation needed}

Statistics

Dubai International Airport has experienced extreme growth in the number of passengers, total freight, and total aircraft movements over the past decade. From 1997 to 2007, the number of annual passengers increased by 316%.^[1]

History

As early as in the 1940s flying from Dubai was possible via flying boats operated by BOAC, operating the Horseshoe line from South-Africa via the Persian Gulf to Sydney. Construction of the airport was originally ordered by Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1959, who was the ruler of Dubai at that time. It officially opened in 1960, at which time it was able to manage aircraft the size of a Douglas DC-3 on a 1800 m. long runway made of compacted sand. Three turning-areas, an apron and small terminal comleted the airport that was constructed by Costain.^[4] In May 1963 construction of a 9.200 ft (2804 m.) asphalt runway started. This new runway, alongside the original sand runway and taxi-strip opened in May 1965, together with several new buildings and extension of the terminal. The installation of the lighting system continued after official opening and was completed in August of that year. During the second half of the 1960s several extensions, equipment-upgrades like VOR and ILS as well as new buildings were realized.

Expansion continued in the early 1970s including ILS Class II equipment, lengthening existing runway to 12.500 ft, installation of NDB, diesel generators, taxi-ways etc. All this work made reception of Boeing 747 and Concorde possible. Several extensions of runways and apron were carried out through the decade to meet growing demand.

In April 1984 a second runway was opened and several extensions and upgrades of terminal facilities and supporting systems were carried out. On 23 December 1980 the airport became ordinary member of the ACI^[5]

Expansion

The airport is currently undergoing a major expansion with the construction of Terminal 3 and new 60 meter (197 ft) wide and longer runway. This expansion will make the airport Airbus A380-compatible.

The airport will also undergo an expansion to allow two stations of the Red Line of the Dubai Metro to be built within the complex. One station will be constructed in Terminal 1 and the other in Terminal 3. The Metro system is not expected to be fully operational until 2012.

Dubai's government has announced the construction of a new airport in Jebel Ali termed Al Maktoum International Airport. It is expected upon completion to be the fourth largest airport in the world by physical size, though not by passenger metrics. Construction is expected to finish by the year 2017. On completion, Dubai International Airport is expected to be able to accommodate up to 70 million passengers.

Airlines and destinations

Destinations by Region

Destinations by Airlines

Terminal 1

Terminal 2

Terminal 3

Terminal 3 will be completely dedicated to Emirates Airline. The terminal was meant to open in May 2008 but, due to project delays, the terminal will partly open in October 2008.^[12]^[9]

Cargo airlines

Incidents

Contents