Al Maktoum Airport Guide
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Three weeks after the opening of the world’s newest airport, Al Maktoum, which serves the huge enterprise zone of Dubai World Central, things are already looking good.
Today saw the low key opening of Al Maktoum International Airport with the first commercial passenger flight to land there, courtesy of Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air.

HISTORY OF Al Maktoum Airport

Dubai has a habit of making the news lately, the Emirate State continuously pushing the boundaries with development and growth from infrastructure and industry to tourism and leisure. Al Maktoum Airport and the Dubai World Central (DWC) project is just further development of that ethos that sees Dubai continue to strive to the biggest and best in the world. Keen to take over from Heathrow as the World's Busiest Airport, Al Maktoum is setting a new benchmark in design and capacity for air travel.

The rise and popularity of Dubai is partly down to its strategic location, as a mid-point between East and West. Good, services and now tourism capitalise on this central location which saw foreign trade total $190 billion (USD) in 2011 and that figure is set to rise year on year. DWC is located approximately 20 miles south west of the centre of Dubai and is strategically placed just 10 miles from Jebel Ali Port (the largest container port between Rotterdam and Singapore) which is fully integrated into the Al Maktoum Airport via the Dubai Logistics Corridor.

Al Maktoum is set to become the world's busiest airport and could not be better placed as will act as a route to the emerging middle east and eastern markets, facilitating the air transportation of goods and services that are estimated to account for 35% of world trade, a percentage set to only increase as the world requires quicker delivery.

When DID IT OPEN?

The airport officially opended on June 27 2010 with a single runway in operation serviign cargo flights only. It took a further 3 years of construction works both on the airport site and within the DWC site to enable commercial passenger flights. The first Al Maktoum Arrival landed on 28 October 2013.


Why Al Maktoum?

The airport is named after the late Sheikh Amhed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, a member of one of the seven ruling families of the UAE, who chair the Dubai Aviation City Corporation and who have ruled Dubai since 1833.