Al Maktoum International Airport مطار آل مكتوم الدولي Maṭār Āl Maktūm al-Duwalī |
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Summary | |||||||||||
Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
Owner | Government of Dubai | ||||||||||
Operator | Dubai Airports Company | ||||||||||
Serves | Dubai | ||||||||||
Location | Jebel Ali, United Arab Emirates | ||||||||||
Opened | 27 June 2010 | ||||||||||
Hub for | |||||||||||
Time zone | UAE Standard Time (UTC+04:00) | ||||||||||
Elevation AMSL | 170 ft / 52 m | ||||||||||
Coordinates | 24°55′06″N 55°10′32″E / 24.91833°N 55.17556°ECoordinates: 24°55′06″N 55°10′32″E / 24.91833°N 55.17556°E | ||||||||||
Website | www |
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Map | |||||||||||
Location in the UAE | |||||||||||
Runways | |||||||||||
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Al Maktoum International Airport (IATA: DWC, ICAO: OMDW) is an international airport in Jebel Ali, 37 kilometres (23 mi) southwest of Dubai, United Arab Emirates that opened on 27 June 2010. It is the main part of Dubai World Central, a planned residential, commercial and logistics complex.
The airport will contain transport modes, logistics and value-added services, including manufacturing and assembly, in a single free economic zone. It will cover an area of 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres). The airport has a projected annual capacity of 12 million tonnes (12,000,000 long tons; 13,000,000 short tons) of freight and between 160 million and 260 million passengers. As of December 2014, only a handful of airlines operate passenger services out of Al Maktoum International Airport.
The 4,500 m × 60 m (14,760 ft × 200 ft) runway was completed in 600 days and subsequently underwent tests over the following six to eight months in order to fulfil its CAT III-C requirements. Construction of the airport's cargo terminal, the Al Maktoum Airport Cargo Gateway, which cost around US$75 million, was 50% complete by the end of 2008.
During the first phase of the project, the airport is planned to handle around 200,000 t (200,000 long tons; 220,000 short tons) of cargo per year, with the possibility of increasing to 800,000 t (790,000 long tons; 880,000 short tons). The passenger terminal at this phase is designed to have a capacity of 5 million passengers per year. It was planned to be the largest airport in the world in terms of freight handled, moving up to 12 million tonnes (12,000,000 long tons; 13,000,000 short tons) per year in 2013.
The project was originally expected to be fully operational by 2017, although the 2007–2012 global financial crisis subsequently postponed the completion of the complex to 2027. Previous working names for the airport complex have included "Jebel Ali International Airport", "Jebel Ali Airport City", and "Dubai World Central International Airport". It has been named after the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the former ruler of Dubai. The total cost of the airport has been estimated by the Dubai government to be $82 billion.