Facilities
The airport is planned to have five 4,500 metres (14,800 ft) parallel runways, with a large passenger complex in the middle. Three runways would straddle at one side of the complex while two more would be located at the other side. Furthermore, each runway would have extended asphalted pathways on either side which would allow aircraft to by-pass other runways and taxiways without disturbing aircraft movements of these runways and taxiways. The airport is the largest component of Dubai World Central. If completed as planned, it will be the world’s largest airport, with 120 million passenger per year capacity and a cargo capacity of 12 million tonnes per year. Its large runways and the distance between them would allow simultaneous takeoffs and landings.
Dubai's expectations of an exponential rise in passenger traffic over its skies is built on the presumption that it would become the ideal air hub for transiting travellers from the Asia-Pacific Region, South Asia, Greater Middle-east, Africa, Europe, and Australia (for the Kangaroo route, i.e., Australia to Britain and vice versa).
Upon completion it will be the third largest air facility in land area (physical size). Only three other air facilities are/were larger than Dubai World Central:
- King Fahd International Airport in Dammam, Saudi Arabia: 780 km2 of physical land area
- Montreal, Canada, the Montréal-Mirabel International Airport (392 square kilometers as originally planned in 1969, but as of December 2006, only about 50 square kilometers)
- King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (225 square kilometers)
The air complex would, perhaps, become the most Airbus A380-friendly air facility in the world since all the hard-stand aero bridge gates are capable of accommodating the aircraft, as the master plan model suggests.
The facility, however, will initially service cargo airlines. Several large warehouses and hangars line the westernmost part of the airport. These interlinked hangars will stretch from end-to-end of the westernmost runway. Each of these is capable of housing A380 aircraft.
The airport will complement Dubai International Airport, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) away. The airport itself is surrounded by a large logistics hub, a luxurious golf resort (with suburban housing interwoven between greens and fairways), an expansive trade and exhibition facility (3 million square metres of exhibition space, making it the world's largest), a massive commercial district, and a spacious residential area.
Due to the massive physical scale of the masterplan, some claim that the Al Maktoum International Airport is be the most ambitious airport ever envisioned. The latest estimates by the government estimate an $82-billion price tag. This aerotropolis would be $62 billion more expensive than the next most expensive airport project Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok International Airport Core Project—which cost the Hong Kong government around $20 billion (in 1997 dollars). This would also make it the most expensive single project in the world, ever (with the possible exceptions of the Dubai Waterfront, The Palm Deira, and New Songdo Intelligent City).
Read more about this topic: Al Maktoum International Airport
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