Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International Airport

Say “Dubai Airport” and most people think of the Emirates A380 parade at Dubai International. About 37 kilometers further southwest, in the middle of the desert near Jebel Ali, lies a second airport that at first glance looks almost empty: Dubai World Central, officially Al Maktoum International. A 4,500-meter runway, a cargo terminal, a comparatively small passenger terminal – and an expansion plan that aims to make this place the largest airport in the world. For spotters, DWC is a place for connoisseurs: less volume, but freighters, niche airlines and the Dubai Airshow every two years.

An airport that began with cargo

The idea behind DWC arose in the 2000s, when it was already foreseeable that Dubai International would hit its limits. Squeezed between city districts, the old hub can no longer grow in area. So Dubai planned a completely new airport city in the south of the emirate, near the port of Jebel Ali. Working titles included “Jebel Ali International Airport” and “Dubai World Central”; today the surrounding urban development area is called Dubai South, and the airport bears the name of the ruling Al Maktoum family.

What was built first was what needs the least infrastructure: a runway and a cargo terminal. The runway was finished in 2007 after about 600 days of construction. Then came the financial crisis, and the originally ambitious schedule slipped. On June 20, 2010, a Boeing 777F of Emirates SkyCargo from Hong Kong finally landed as the first flight – a trial run for air traffic control, ground processes and security checks. At the end of June 2010, DWC officially opened, initially exclusively for cargo.

Passengers came in stages. In February 2011 the airport received approval for smaller passenger aircraft with up to 60 seats, and regular scheduled service has existed since October 26, 2013. The first two airlines were flynas from Saudi Arabia and Wizz Air. For a long time passenger volume stayed small; in the first half of 2016 the airport counted just over 410,000 travelers – fewer than Dubai International handles in two days today.

DWC and DXB: two airports, two roles

For planning your visit, the division of labor is decisive. Dubai International (DXB) is the hub of Emirates and flydubai and counted about 95 million passengers in 2025. DWC, by contrast, is today an airport for everything that relieves DXB: cargo flights, charter, business aircraft and scheduled service carried mainly by low-cost and charter airlines. Both belong to the same operator, the state-owned company Dubai Airports.

How important DWC is as a diversion airport was shown in 2014: While Dubai International rehabilitated one of its runways for 80 days from May to July, cargo, charter and private flights diverted to DWC, and 14 airlines moved over temporarily. For spotters those were weeks when suddenly a lot was going on in the desert.

Runway 12/30

The heart of today’s operations is runway 12/30: 4,500 meters long and 60 meters wide. The designation reveals the orientation: The runway runs at about 120 and 300 degrees, so roughly from west-northwest to east-southeast. At this length even fully loaded widebody freighters have no problems in the midday heat, and that is exactly what it is meant for: Heat reduces air density, and aircraft then need more distance to take off. In the Gulf a long runway is therefore not a luxury but an operational necessity.

Which direction is in use depends on the wind, as everywhere. Aircraft take off and land into the wind; depending on the weather, landings therefore come from the east-southeast or from the west-northwest. Estimating the runway direction in use works in Dubai just as it does at home – in a live flight tracker you see where approaches are coming from right now. The basics are explained in the article on flight tracking with ADS-B.

Cargo: the real core

DWC was founded as a cargo airport, and that shapes the grounds to this day. The cargo terminal was part of the very first phase of construction, and long-term planning provides a capacity of up to 12 million tonnes of cargo per year for the entire airport. For comparison: Dubai International handled just over 2.2 million tonnes in 2025.

The role of Emirates SkyCargo has a checkered history. Emirates’ cargo division opened the airport in 2010 with its 777F and built its own cargo terminal at DWC with Emirates SkyCentral. As of April 1, 2020, however, Emirates moved cargo handling from there to Dubai International. How cargo flows will be split between the two airports in the future depends heavily on the progress of the expansion.

Apart from Emirates, DWC is a gathering point for cargo airlines from many parts of the world. The listings include FedEx Express, Atlas Air, Turkish Cargo and China Airlines Cargo, plus smaller charter cargo airlines from Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Which of them are active changes often – the schedule shows you the current status. If you want to tell the types apart, the article Recognizing freighter aircraft helps, and who is behind the big parcel fleets is explained in the article on the express integrators DHL, FedEx and UPS.

Passenger traffic: a meeting place for niche carriers

In the passenger terminal it is calmer than at DXB, but not boring. The first phase was designed for about 5 million passengers per year. Scheduled service is carried today mainly by low-cost and charter airlines, including several companies from Russia – a look at the board in October 2026 shows, for example, flights to and from Moscow Vnukovo – as well as Saudi low-cost airlines such as flynas, which was already there at the start in 2013. The picture is completed by European charter airlines that fly to Dubai in winter for package holidays.

For you as a spotter that means: Here you do not hang on volume but on rarity. Airlines that never or only rarely land in Germany show up regularly at DWC. The schedules of these companies change frequently, though; routes are opened, suspended and resumed. Before you set off, check the airport’s arrivals and departures board – it reliably shows whether the trip is worthwhile that day.

The Dubai Airshow

Every two years DWC turns into one of the most important meeting points of the aviation industry. The Dubai Airshow goes back to a small trade fair from 1986, and the first Dubai Airshow took place in 1989 – back then still at Dubai International Airport. Today it stands on its own exhibition grounds at Dubai World Central and takes place in November of odd-numbered years.

The show is famous for big orders from the Gulf airlines. In 2023 Emirates ordered 90 Boeing 777X there, in 2025 another 65 Boeing 777-9s followed, and flydubai ordered 75 Boeing 737 MAX. For visitors, the show offers a large static display with airliners, business aircraft and military aircraft as well as a daily flying program with demonstrations by the manufacturers and aerobatic teams. In 2025 the organizers counted almost 249,000 visitors. On the last day of the 2025 edition, an Indian HAL Tejas fighter jet crashed during a demonstration, and the pilot was killed.

According to the organizer, the next edition is scheduled for November 15 to 19, 2027. Whether and on which days private visitors are admitted is set by the organizers anew for each edition – check this in good time on the official website. A detailed introduction with photo tips is in the article on the Dubai Airshow, general tricks for the flying program are in the guide Photographing airshows and the matching packing list is in the checklist for airshow day.

The mega expansion: Dubai’s next main airport

On April 28, 2024, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, approved the plans for a new passenger terminal at DWC. Dubai puts the investment at about AED 128 billion, roughly 35 billion US dollars. Dubai Airports describes the project as the second expansion phase of the airport.

The dimensions are enormous. In the final build-out the plan provides for five parallel runways and 400 aircraft stands, and capacity reaches up to 260 million passengers per year. The area is given as about 70 square kilometers – roughly five times Dubai International. That would make DWC the largest airport in the world.

Once the expansion is finished, Emirates and flydubai move from DXB to DWC, and Dubai International is closed. At the announcement, a timeline of about ten years was mentioned; media reports assume that DXB reaches its capacity limit in the early 2030s and that the move happens gradually, with flydubai switching before Emirates. You should treat concrete dates for individual runways and terminal sections with caution – big airport projects like to slip, and DWC itself has already experienced that once after the financial crisis.

For spotters the expansion is doubly interesting. For one thing, you are documenting an airport that will be barely recognizable in a few years. For another, the Emirates hub, with its big fleet of Airbus A380s and Boeing 777-300ERs, will land right here at some point. Why the Gulf airlines build so big in the first place is explained in the article on the business model of Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad.

Getting there and planning

DWC lies away from the classic tourist districts but is easy to reach. According to the airport, you take the metro to Ibn Battuta or EXPO and change to a bus there: Line F55 shuttles between DWC and EXPO metro station, and N55 connects the airport with the Ibn Battuta bus and metro stations. Both run about every 30 minutes. With a taxi or rental car you are more flexible; parking at the airport is free according to Dubai Airports.

A visit to DWC is worthwhile mainly as a complement. If you are in Dubai for a few days, it makes sense to spend most of your time around Dubai International and tack on DWC for targeted freighter or charter arrivals. An overview of how to plan a spotting trip in Dubai as a whole is given by the article Plane spotting in Dubai. The big neighbors are not far either: Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport is the hub of Etihad Airways, and in Qatar Doha Hamad International awaits with the fleet of Qatar Airways.

DWC compared

Other cargo airports make an interesting comparison. In Europe, Leipzig/Halle and Liège play a similar role: airports that live not on passenger traffic but on cargo and night flights. The big difference: DWC will not remain a cargo airport permanently but will take over Dubai’s entire passenger hub after the expansion. Such a complete move of a hub is rare – examples like the switch from Istanbul Atatürk to the new Istanbul Airport show how much a spotting territory changes as a result.

Compared with Dubai International, DWC is small today but built on a completely different footprint. DXB is hemmed in, while DWC has desert in every direction. That very freedom is the reason Dubai is planning its aviation future here – with aircraft from the manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, whose widebody jets shape the Gulf hubs.

Conclusion

Dubai World Central is an airport between two states. Today a calm place with a long runway, plenty of cargo, charter airlines and business aircraft; tomorrow, by Dubai’s will, the largest airport in the world with five parallel runways and the entire Emirates hub. Anyone who comes here as a spotter is not looking for volume but for the special: a rare freighter, an airline from another part of the world or the new products at the Dubai Airshow.

What makes the difference between a wasted day and a worthwhile one is the schedule, the time of day and the rules on site. Check the arrivals, plan for heat and haze and follow the strict requirements in the Emirates – then DWC becomes an exciting addition to any Dubai trip.