Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, will move operations to the city-state’s sprawling second airfield in its southern desert “within the next 10 years” in a project valued at nearly $35 billion. dollars, its ruler said on Sunday.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s announcement marks the latest chapter in the recovery of his long-haul airline Emirates after the coronavirus pandemic brought international travel to a standstill. There have been plans for years to move operations from the airport known as DXB to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central, which had also been delayed by the fallout from the 2009 Sheikhdom economic crisis.
“We are building a new project for future generations, while ensuring continuous and stable development for our children and their children,” Sheikh Mohammed said in an online statement. “Dubai will be the world’s airport, its port, its urban center and its new global center.”
The ad included computer-rendered images of a curved white terminal reminiscent of traditional Bedouin tents on the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, according to the announcement. The airport now has only two runways, as does Dubai International Airport.
The financial health of Emirates airline has served as a barometer for the aviation industry around the world and the broader economic health of this city-state. Dubai and the airline quickly recovered from the pandemic boosting tourism even as some countries emerged more slowly from their pandemic situation.
The number of passengers flying through DXB increased last year from 2019’s total with 86.9 million passengers. Its annual traffic in 2019 was 86.3 million passengers. The airport had 89.1 million passengers in 2018, its busiest year before the pandemic, while in 2022 66 million passengers passed through it.
In early February, Dubai announced its best-ever tourism figures, saying it welcomed 17.15 million overnight international visitors in 2023. Average hotel occupancy stood at around 77%. Its boom-and-bust real estate market is still on a roll, approaching historic valuations.
But as that ridership soared, it again put new pressure on DXB’s capacity, which remains limited on all sides by residential neighborhoods and two major highways.
Al Maktoum International Airport, about 45 kilometers (28 mi) from DXB, opened in 2010 with one terminal. It served as a parking lot for Emirates’ double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft during the pandemic and has slowly come back to life with cargo and private flights since then. It also hosts the Dubai Airshow every two years and has a vast, empty desert to expand into.
Sheikh Mohammed’s announcement highlighted Dubai’s plans to expand further south. Its nearby Expo 2020 site has already been offering homes to buyers.
“As we build an entire city around the airport in southern Dubai, demand for housing for a million people will follow,” Dubai’s ruler said. “It will house the main global companies in the logistics and air transport sectors.”
However, financial pressures have halted the move in the past. Dubai’s 2009 financial crisis, sparked by the Great Recession, forced Abu Dhabi to provide the city-state with a $20 billion bailout.
Meanwhile, the city-state is still trying to recover after the heaviest rains ever recorded in the United Arab Emirates, which disrupted flights and trade for days.