Al Maktoum International Airport also known as Dubai World Central is a huge complex, which has been operating since the June of 2010. The airport is the last piece of the huger than huge transportation and industrial zone, which was set up in Jebel Ali right next to Dubai. Today, it is considered as part of the metropolis as well. The Al Maktoum International Airport handles all cargo operations right now, including Emirates’ own Sky Cargo department.
Going even further, Dubai is willing to establish the largest airport in the world with the Maktoum International Airport, a hub both for civil and cargo airlines with a pre-planned passenger capacity of 160 million passengers yearly which is an unbelievable number. Anyhow, the huge airport would make a whole zone, like a complex, with enough storage places for cargo, amenities and possibilities for the passengers. The builder of the project is called Dubai Airports Company and the huge Jebel Ali based airport would be ten times as big as the current Dubai International Airport. The Al Maktoum Airport has been constructed in a way that it can receive and handle the most modern and biggest planes as well.
The huge airport is located next to the huge Jebel Ali Free Zone, which directly leads to the enormous port of Jebel Ali, to where all the cargo shipments had been transferred from the central port of Dubai. This way a perfect base of transportation is already conducted in Jebel Ali.
Here are some numbers for your information on how exactly Al Maktoum Airport would look like when is ready. Currently, one main highway is ready and in use by cargo planes.
The Al Maktoum Airport:
* Five parallel runways, 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) in length, each separated by a distance of 800 metres (2,600 ft).
* Three passenger terminals, including two luxury facilities; one dedicated to airlines of The Emirates Group, the second to other carriers, and the third dedicated to low cost carriers.
* More than one concourses
* The airport has 16 cargo terminals with an overall 12 million ton capacity
* In the main building, there is a VIP section where the Executive and Royal jet centres located
* There are building hotels and shopping malls in the area.
* The airport has all possible sorts of transportation facilities which can be thanked to the key role of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, even with the linking of the airport to the neighbouring highway system
* There are over 100,000 underground parking spaces, separate for airport staff and passengers
* As a brilliant idea the Al Maktoum International Airport and the Dubai International Airport will be linked by a future high speed express rail system
* Al Maktoum International Airport will also be connected to Dubai Metro and a dedicated Dubai World Central light railway