Dubai World Central (DWC) is the emirate’s 140 square km mega construction project that is twice the size of Hong Kong Island and once it is finished, it will enable the world’s largest airport (Al Maktoum Airport) to go into operation.
Once completed, the $8 billion Al Maktoum International Airport, named after the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the former ruler of Dubai, will have an annual cargo capacity of 12 million tonnes which is more than 3 times that of Memphis International Airport, currently the world’s largest cargo hub. It will also eclipse the world’s current busiest passenger airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The American airport experiences annual passenger numbers of 90 million, but Al Maktoum Airport is expected to see between 120 and 150 million per year.
As the hub of Dubai World Central, Al Maktoum Airport has been designed to deal with all future next generation aircraft such as the Airbus A380. As such, the airport boasts 6 parallel runways, each 4.5km in length and 800m apart. Because of the size of the runaways, the airport will be able to allow 4 aircraft to land simultaneously throughout the day.
As it is at the centre of Dubai World Central, the airport will also feature stations for the Dubai Metro and the DWC light railway.
With 16 cargo terminals, 3 passenger terminals (including two luxury facilities, one for the The Emirates Group) as well as hotels and shopping malls, it is expected to become one of the busiest airports in the world, cementing Dubai’s place in the business world.
Almaktoum Airport is expected to be operational by summer this year although it will be a while before the Airport is fully operational and taking some of the strain off Dubai Airport.
The Dubai World Centre, rumoured to be costing $33 billion, is the project under which a number of constructions are being built. These inter-related mini-cities include the Dubai World Central Residential City, Dubai World Central Logistics City, Dubai World Central Enterprise Park and Dubai World Central Golf City. It has been described as a “city-within-a-city”, and is being built 40 kilometres from the existing Dubai International Airport (DXB). It’s main purpose is to support Dubai’s aviation, tourism, commercial and logistics requirements until 2050 and beyond. It is hoped that it will transform the United Arab Emirates, and indeed Dubai, into one of the most powerful global centres for commerce, logistics and tourism.