The airport will be the new home of flagship carrier Emirates and its sister low-cost airline Flydubai along with all airline partners connecting the world to and from Dubai, Dubai state-owned airline Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said.
There will be 400 aircraft gates and 5 parallel runways.
The move “further solidifies Dubai’s position as a leading aviation hub on the world stage”, said the CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths.
Leaders in the UAE are hoping the Al MaktoumAirport expansion will boost Dubai‘s real estate, especially in Dubai South. “When we build a whole city around the airport in the south of Dubai, the demand for housing for a million people will increase. It will host the world’s leading companies in the logistics and air transport sectors,” Sheikh Mohammed of the UAE who approved the airport, wrote in a publication in X.
He promises a strong commitment to sustainability aimed at achieving LEED Gold certification.
We hope the UAE makes good on producing sustainable aviation fuel, SAFs. The world is going to need it if flights get cheaper, and more frequent. Germany just added a 20% green tax to flights.
Work on the new airport is due to begin immediately, with the first phase of the project expected to be completed within the next 10 years. It is projected to create an estimated labor and housing demand for more than a million people. We hope the immigrants building the airport get a fair wage and labor conditions.
Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience.
With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change.
She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it.
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