The long-delayed second Dubai airport, Dubai World Central, will finally open its doors for passengers from all over the world on October 26th. The emirates’ ambition is to turn the airport into the world’s busiest one and make Dubai a key air travel hub.
Dubai World Central will start off with two carriers – Wizz Air and nasair. Hungary’s low-cost Wizz Air will offer non-stop flights from Easters and Central Europe. Nasair, on the other hand, will fly 50 times a week between Dubai and Saudi Arabia. For now, big airlines, like Dubai’s Emirates, will not transfer to Dubai World Central.
Dubai’s second airport is situated in the desert, around 60 kilometers southwest from Dubai International Airport. The City of Gold hopes to make the new facility the busiest in the world. Dubai World Central impresses with an annual passenger capacity of 160 million. In comparison, the current capacity of Dubai International Airport is about 75 million passengers. In addition, the new Dubai airport will have 64 remote aircraft stands and an A380-capable runway.
Dubai World Central started working as a cargo airport in the middle of 2010. Last year, it managed to handle over 16,300 aircraft movements, over 219,000 tons of freight and it also served 36 charter and scheduled airlines. However, the airport was not ready to open its doors for passengers in March, 2011, as it was promised.
Dubai World Central will replace Dubai’s current active airline Dubai International. However, this will happen after 2020. But despite that, Dubai is planning to expand the airport by investing $7.8 billion in it. Part of the city’s goal is open a special terminal for Emirates Airbus A380s in January, 2014.
The emirates support for Dubai International is mainly triggered by the airport’s huge popularity and global passenger flow. Not long ago, Dubai International was dubbed the second busiest airport in the world after it marked a 13.2% rise in its passenger traffic and served 57.7 million people. In so doing, Dubai’s first airport managed to overtake facilities like Paris’ Chrles de Gaulle. The only airport that handled bigger passenger flow was Heathrow in London.
It is expected that by the opening of Dubai World Central, Dubai’s aviation industry will make up about 32% of the city’s total GDP. Also, it is predicted that it will offer more than 373,000 job positions. In comparison, Dubai International Airport supports about 58,000 jobs.
