Dubai Airport
Dubai International Airport
The airport is a hub to Dubai's international airline, Emirates, as well as serving as a secondary hub for the Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways. Other smaller passenger and cargo airlines use the airport as a hub and these include Dolphin Air and Falcon Express Cargo Airlines. Airlines with secondary hubs at the airport include British Gulf International Airlines, Iran Aseman Airlines, DAS Air Cargo, Aero Asia, Air Blue, Iran Air and African Express Airways.
The airport operates flights from Dubai to North America, Europe, South America, East Asia, Southwest Asia, North Asia, Australasia, and Africa. Dubai International Airport will be complemented by Dubai World Central International Airport, a new 140 km2 airport that will help handle the influx of travelers well into the future.
Operated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Dubai, in 2007, the airport handled 34.3 million passengers and targets 40 million for the year 2008. As of January 2008, the airport served 95,000 passengers per day, and 120 airlines to over 205 destinations. An important contributor to the Dubai economy, 13,000 people are employed at the airport.[citation needed] The airport accounts for over S$5.5 billion in output.
Dubai International Airport has experienced extreme growth in the number of passengers, total freight, and total aircraft movements over the past decade. From 1997 to 2007, the number of annual passengers increased by 316%
The airport is currently undergoing a major expansion with the construction of Terminal 3 and new 60 meter (197 foot) wide and longer runway. This expansion will make the airport fully Airbus A380 compatible.
The airport will also undergo an expansion to allow two stations of the Red Line of the Dubai Metro to be built within the complex. One station will be constructed in Terminal 1 and the other in Terminal 3. The Metro system is not expected to be fully operational until 2010.
Dubai's government has announced the construction of a new airport in Jebel Ali termed Dubai World Central International Airport. It is expected upon completion to be the fourth largest airport in the world by physical size, though not by passenger metrics. Construction is expected to finish by the year 2017. On completion, Dubai International Airport is expected to be able to accommodate up to 70 million passengers.
