Dubai International Airport

Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXB, ICAO: OMDB) (Arabic: مطار دبي الدولي‎) is an international airport serving Dubai. It is a major aviation hub in the Middle East, and is the main airport of Dubai. It is situated in the Al Garhoud district, 4 km (2.5 mi) northeast of Dubai. The airport is operated by the Department of Civil Aviation and is the home base of Dubai's international airlines, Emirates, FlyDubai and Emirates SkyCargo; the Emirates hub is the largest airline hub in the Middle East; Emirates handles 60% of all passenger traffic, and accounts for 38% of all aircraft movements at the airport. Dubai Airport is also the base for low-cost carrier, Flydubai. The airport will become a secondary hub for Qantas in April 2013, after a major partnership was formed between Emirates and Qantas. Qantas will use Dubai as the main stopover point for flights on travelling to Europe. As of September 2012, there are over 6,000 weekly flights operated by 130 airlines to over 220 destinations across every continent except Antarctica.

Dubai Airport is spread over an area of 8,640 acres (3,500 ha) of land. In 2011 DXB handled a record 50.98 million in passenger traffic, an 8% increase over the 2010 fiscal year. This made it the 13th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the 4th busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic. In addition to being an important passenger traffic hub, the airport was the 6th busiest cargo airport in world, handling 2.27 million tonnes of cargo in 2011 The total number of commercial aircraft movements was 326,317 in 2011. As of November 2012, DXB is the 11th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the 6th busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic.

Dubai International is an important contributor to the Dubai economy, employing approximately 58,000 people, and indirectly supports over 250,000 jobs in Dubai and contributes over US$22 billion, which represents around 19% of total employment in Dubai, and 28% of Dubai’s GDP. It has foretasted by 2020, that economic contribution of Dubai’s aviation sector to rise to 32% of Dubai’s GDP and about 22% of its employment by 2020 by supporting over 373,000 jobs in Dubai.

The new $4.5 billion Terminal 3 opened on 14 October 2008, and was built exclusively for the use of Emirates Airline. From April 2013, Qantas will begin flying to Dubai International Airport and share the exclusive Terminal 3 with Emirates as part of their new Alliance. Concourse A is also part of Terminal 3, and is expected to open on 1 January 2013. It will be built exclusively for the Emirates Airbus A380, and Qantas will also utilize the concourse. Terminal 3 is the second largest building in the world by floor space and the largest airport terminal in the world, increasing the total capacity of the airport to over 62 million passengers. The airport's capacity will increase to more than 80 million passengers annually in 2013 when Concourse A opens. Further extensions to Terminal 2 are also currently being made. The airport revealed its future plans in May 2011, which involve construction of a new Concourse D, for all airlines currently operating from concourse C. Concourse D is expected to bring the total capacity of the airport to over 90 million passengers, and will be operating by 2018. The plan also involves Emirates solely operating from Concourse C along with Concourse A and B which it will already be operating.

Dubai International Airport will be complemented by Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai World Central International Airport), a new 140 km2 (54 sq mi) airport that will help handle the influx of travellers well into the future. It began cargo operations on 27 June 2010 and was expected to begin passenger operations in March 2011 but has been further delayed to 2012.