Dubai set to have world’s largest airport by 2050

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Dubai is set to be the home of the world’s largest airport, complemented by a business-friendly free zone and residential options once complete, urban master developer Dubai South has tweeted.

With an area of 145 square kilometres, Dubai South is Dubai’s largest single urban master development focusing on an aviation and logistics ecosystem that houses the world’s largest airport when fully operational, complemented by a multi-modal transport infrastructure connecting air, land and sea.

The goal is to make Al Maktoum International Airport located in Dubai South the world’s largest airport by 2050, capable of accommodating up to 255 million passengers annually.

Early this year, there were reports of continuing the earlier plan set out for the Dh120 billion ($33 billion) expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as Dubai World Central (DWC), in phases.

Dubai’s second international airport opened on June 27, 2010 for cargo operations, followed by passenger flights in October 2013, with a terminal capacity of 5-7 million passengers.

Once completed, DWC will be the world’s largest global gateway with a capacity for more than 160 million passengers per year. It will also serve as a multi-modal logistics hub for 12 million tonnes of freight.

DWC is the centre of the multiphase development of six clustered zones in Dubai Zone that includes the Dubai Logistics City, Commercial City, Residential City, Aviation City and the Golf City.

World’s busiest airport

Meanwhile, Dubai International (DXB) has maintained its top position as the busiest airport for international passenger traffic for the ninth consecutive year in 2022, according to Airports Council International (ACI).

Dubai airport’s passenger traffic more than doubled to over 66 million in 2022 on the back of a strong recovery in the local and international aviation sector, prompting DXB to raise its forecast for 2023 to 78 million.