Dubai International Airport

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dubai International Airport
مطار دبي الدولي

IATA: DXB – ICAO: OMDB
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Department of Civil Aviation
Serves Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Elevation AMSL 62 ft / 19 m
Coordinates 25°15′10″N 055°21′52″E / 25.25278, 55.36444
Website www.dubaiairport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
12L/30R 4,000 13,124 Asphalt
12R/30L
Closed
4,000 13,124 Asphalt
Statistics (2007)
Aircraft Movements 260,530
Passengers 34,340,000
Statistics from Dubai International Airport[1]

Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXBICAO: OMDB) (Arabic: مطار دبي الدولي) is an international airport serving Dubai, the largest city of the United Arab Emirates. It is a major aviation hub in the Middle East, and is the main airport in Dubai.

Contents

[edit] Overview

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. It is a focus city for a number of airlines including; Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Air India, Pakistan International Airlines, and Jubba Airways.

The airport operates flights from Dubai to North America, Europe, South America, East Asia, Southwest Asia, South 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, it was the 27th busiest airport in the world in 2007, handling 34.34 million passengers. The airport targets 40 million for the year 2008.[2] As of January 2008, the airport served 95,000 passengers per day, and 120 airlines to over 205 destinations.[2] 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.[citation needed]

[edit] Statistics

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%.[1]

Statistics for Dubai International Airport
Year Total Passengers  % Increase Freight (tons) Total Aircraft Movements
1997 9,108,766 13.7% 414,468 112,816
1998 9,732,202 6.8% 431,777 123,352
1999 10,754,824 10.5% 474,779 132,708
2000 12,320,660 14.6% 562,591 141,281
2001 13,508,073 9.6% 610,867 134,165
2002 15,973,391 18.3% 764,193 148,334
2003 18,062,344 13.1% 928,758 168,511
2004 21,711,883 13.7% 1,111,647 195,820
2005 24,782,288 14.1% 1,333,014 217,165
2006 28,788,726 16.2% 1,410,963 237,258
2007 34,340,000 19.3% 260,530
2008 (January - March)[3] 9, 340,000 15.11% (same period last year) 399,718 N/A

[edit] History

Model of Dubai Airport c.1959
Model of Dubai Airport c.1959

Construction of the airport was originally ordered by Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1959, who was the ruler of Dubai at that time. It officially opened in 1960, at which time it was able to manage aircraft the size of a Douglas DC-3. The airport was originally constructed by Costain.[4]

[edit] Expansion

A new terminal under construction
A new terminal under construction

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 2012.

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.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Dubai International Airport interior
Dubai International Airport interior

[edit] Terminal 1

  • Aeroflot-Don (Rostov, Sochi)
  • Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev-Boryspil)
  • Air Algérie (Algiers)
  • Air Astana (Almaty, Astana)
  • Air China (Athens, Beijing)
  • Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
  • Air India (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram)
    • Air-India Express (Amritsar, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Indore, Kochi, Kozhikode, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram)
    • Indian Airlines (Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata)
  • Air Zimbabwe (Harare, Lilongwe, Lusaka)
  • Alitalia (Rome-Fiumicino)
  • Aria Air (Bandar Abbas)
  • Ariana Afghan Airlines (Kabul)
  • Armavia (Yerevan)
  • Austrian Airlines (Vienna)
  • AVE.com (Baghdad, Basra, Djibouti, Kandahar, Sharjah, Yerevan)
  • Azerbaijan Airlines (Baku)
  • Bahrain Air (Bahrain)
  • Biman Bangladesh Airlines (Chittagong, Dhaka, London-Heathrow, Rome-Fiumicino)
  • British Airways (London-Heathrow)
  • Bulgaria Air (Sofia)
  • Cameroon Airlines (Douala)
  • Caspian Airlines (Abadan, Ahwaz)
  • Cathay Pacific (Bahrain, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Hong Kong, Mumbai)
  • China Southern Airlines (Beijing, Guangzhou, Lagos)
  • Cyprus Airways (Bahrain, Larnaca)
  • Daallo Airlines (Djibouti)
  • Dagestan Airlines (Makhachkala)
  • Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
  • Donbassaero (Donetsk, Odessa)
  • EgyptAir (Alexandria-Nozha, Cairo)
  • Emirates Airline (Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Ahmedabad, Alexandria-Borg, Amman, Athens, Auckland, Bahrain, Bangalore, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beijing, Beirut, Birmingham, Brisbane, Cairo, Cape Town, Casablanca, Chennai, Christchurch, Colombo, Damascus, Damman, Dar es Salaam, Delhi, Dhaka, Doha, Durban [begins 1 December 2008],[5] Düsseldorf, Entebbe, Frankfurt, Glasgow-International, Guangzhou [begins 1 July 2008],[6] Hamburg, Hong Kong, Houston-Intercontinental, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Istanbul-Atatürk, Jakarta, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Karachi, Khartoum, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode [begins 1 July 2008],[7] Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait City, Lagos, Lahore, Larnaca, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles [begins 1 September 2008],[8] Luqa, Male, Manchester, Manila, Melbourne, Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, Muscat, Nagoya-Centrair, Nairobi, New York-JFK, Newcastle, Nice, Osaka-Kansai, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Perth, Peshawar, Port Louis, Rome-Fiumicino, Riyadh, Sanaa, San Francisco [begins 26 October 2008][9], São Paulo-Guarulhos, Seoul-Incheon, Seychelles, Shanghai-Pudong, Singapore, Sydney, Tehran-Imam Khomeini, Thiruvanthapuram, Toronto-Pearson, Tripoli, Tunis, Venice, Vienna, Zürich)
Emirates Airline is moving operations to Terminal 3 in August 2008

[edit] Terminal 2

[edit] Terminal 3

Terminal 3 is completely dedicated to Emirates Airline. The terminal was meant to open in May 2008 but, due to project delays, will open in August 2008.[12]

Emirates Airline is moving operations from Terminal 1 in August 2008

[edit] Cargo airlines


[edit] Incidents

  • On 3 July 1988, Iran Air Flight 655, which was on a Tehran-Bandar Abbas-Dubai route, was shot down by USS Vincennes between Bandar Abbas and Dubai. 290 people were killed in this incident.
  • On 28 July 2001, a man named Djamel Beghal was arrested at Dubai International Airport while transferring from a flight from Pakistan to a flight to Europe. Beghal admitted to being part of the Paris embassy attack plot to UAE interrogators. The Al-Qaeda suspect was taken to France, where he recanted parts of his statement. The plot was dismantled by French, Belgian, and Dutch authorities.
  • Part of the airport's Terminal 3 collapsed on September 28, 2004 during the construction phase.
  • On 17 February 2007, a Novair A330-200 made an emergency landing in an airport in the United Arab Emirates. The plane was flying from Phuket, Thailand to Copenhagen, Denmark with mainly Danish passengers. After takeoff from a scheduled intermediate landing in Dubai, the captain felt some strange vibrations in one of the engines and decided to shut it down. The landing went smoothly and no one was injured.
  • 12 March 2007: Biman Bangladesh Airlines Flight BG006 (LHR-DXB-DAC), carrying 236 passengers and crew, the nose gear of the Airbus A310-300 collapsed while accelerating down the runway[14]. Fourteen people suffered minor injuries in the accident at Dubai International Airport[15]. The aircraft came to rest at the end of the runway and was evacuated, but crippled the only active runway and forced the airport to close for eight hours, affecting 71 flights[16].
  • Hijackings: 2 with a total of 1 fatality.[citation needed]

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[edit] References

[edit] External links