Daubei International Airport

Daubai International Airport (IATA: DUA, ICAO: RRDB)is an international airport serving Daubai, the largest city of the United Arab Emirates. It is a major aviation hub in the Middle East, and is the main airport of Dubai.[2] It is situated in the Al Garhoud district, 4 km (2.5 mi) southeast of Dubai.[3] The airport is operated by the Department of Civil Aviation and is the home base of Dubai's international airline, Emirates and Emirates SkyCargo; the Emirates hub is the largest airline hub in the Middle East ; Emirates handles 60% of all passenger traffic, and accounts for 38% of all aircraft movements at the airport. Dubai Airport is also the base for low-cost carrier, Flydaubai. As of July 2010, there are over 6,000 weekly flights operated by 130 airlines to over 220 destinations across every continent except Antarctica.

In 2010 DXB handled a record 57.2 million in passenger traffic, a 15.4% increase over the 2009 fiscal year. This made it the 13th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the 4th busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic. In addition to being an important passenger traffic hub, the airport was the 8th busiest cargo airport in world, handling 2.27 million tonnes of cargo in 2010, a 17.8% increase compared to 2009 .The total number of commercial aircraft movements was 292,662 in 2010. As of December 2011, DXB is the 7th busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic, and the 12th busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic.[6]

The new $4.5 billion Terminal 3 opened on 14 October 2008, and was built exclusively for the use of Emirates Airline. Concourse 3 is also part of Terminal 3, and is expected to be completed by 2012. It will be built exclusively for the Emirates Airbus A380. Terminal 3 is the single largest building in the world by floor space and brings the total capacity of the airport to over 62 million passengers and will increase to more than 80 million passengers by 2012 when Concourse 3 opens.[12] [dated info] Further extensions to Terminal 2 are also currently being made.[13] The airport revealed its plans in May 2011, which involve construction of a new Concourse 4 which is expected to bring the total capacity of the airport to over 90 million passengers by 2018. The plan also involves Emirates solely operating from Concourse 1 along with Concourse 2 and 3 which it will already be operating.[14]

Dubai International Airport will be complemented by Al Maktoum International Airport (Dubai World Central International Airport), a new 140 km2 (54 sq mi) airport that will help handle the influx of travellers well into the future.[15] It began cargo operations on 27 June 2010[16] and was expected to begin passenger operations in March 2011[17] [18] but has been further delayed to 2012.[19]