VIDEO Dubai announces it will build the world’s largest airport, 5 times bigger than the one it currently has

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the current ruler of Dubai, has announced that the city’s airport will become the largest in the world, following expansion works that will cost 128 billion dirhams, the equivalent of almost 35 billion dollars, Reuters reports.

“We have today approved the plans for the new passenger terminals at Al Maktoum International Airport, and we are starting construction at a cost of 128 billion dirhams as part of Dubai Aviation Corporation’s strategy,” the ruler of Dubai announced on Sunday in a post made on the network of social network “X”, formerly Twitter.

He pointed out that the airport in Dubai will become the largest in the world in terms of passenger capacity, able to serve up to 260 million people. “It will be 5 times larger than the current Dubai International Airport and all Dubai International Airport operations will be transferred to it in the coming years,” Sheikh Rashid al-Maktoum said.

He also said that the airport will have 400 aircraft gates and 5 parallel runways, and it will integrate several new technologies for the first time in the aviation sector. He also announced the construction of an “entire city” to serve the airport and housing for one million people.

“We are building for future generations, ensuring continuous and stable development for our children and their children. Dubai will be the world’s airport, its port, its urban hub and its new global center,” he concluded.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Emirates Airlines, the state airline of the United Arab Emirates, said the new airport will become the “home” of his company, but also of its low-cost “sister”, Flydubai.

The move “further strengthens Dubai’s position as a leading aviation hub on the world stage,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, quoted by local media.

According to AFAR magazine, Dubai airport is currently the second largest in the world in terms of the number of passengers handled annually (87 million), after Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (104.65 million).

The largest airport in Europe, Heathrow in London, is only in the fourth position in the ranking (79.2 million passengers), behind another American airport: Dallas–Fort Worth in Texas (81.75 million).

The dates are for the year 2023.