Airport Guide

History of Dubai Airport

Though Dubai may well be full of new money and contemporary skyscrapers, the emirate's main airport has a history as long and fascinating as many of its European counterparts.

The site of the current airport was first used as a base for 'flying boats' back in the 1930s, with international flights to Southampton in England and Sydney, Australia on offer by 1940.

However, the present-day Dubai International Airport really started to take shape in 1959, with a runway made of compacted sand and a terminal building in place to welcome the first jet-powered planes by 1960.

An asphalt runway was added in 1963, with that decade and the 1970s seeing a steady rate of growth, with new buildings constructed and a second runway capable of handling 747s and the Concorde operational by 1984.

While the 1980s saw Dubai International serve as a stopping-off point for airlines flying between Far East destinations such as Hong Kong and Singapore and Europe, it was not until the late 1990s that work to expand the airport really took off.

A second terminal was opened in 1998, followed by a third ten years later, with the latter having since been expanded to handle the giant Airbus A380 jet.

At present, work is underway to expand the airport even more so that it can handle 75 million passengers a year, as well as to enhance links with the business and tourist centres of the emirate.

Travelling to Dubai International Airport

For those passengers not being picked up by limousine at the airport's specially-constructed VIP terminal suites, travelling into downtown Dubai is both quick and easy.

As well as numerous taxis, the red line of the Dubai Metro now connects the emirate's centre with both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, with the link having only been opened in September 2009.

Meanwhile, work is also currently underway on extending the green line of the Metro system to Terminal 2, with this scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2011, and plans are also in place to build a new Purple Line to link Dubai International with the upcoming Al Maktoum International Airport.

At the same time, Dubai buses run a number of services around the city, while coach services are available to Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Sharjah, as well as to a number of smaller cities and towns.

Airlines Flying From Dubai International Airport

Dubai's bustling, modern airport handles around 6,000 flights a week to 200 destinations across six continents.

The airline with by far the biggest presence at Dubai International is Emirates, which currently accounts for 60 per cent of all passenger traffic and which offers hundreds of flights a week, both within the Middle East region and further afield.

Destinations offered by Emirates include Accra, Birmingham, Athens, Auckland, Damascus, Glasgow, Hong Kong, Houston, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lagos, London, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, New York, Newcastle, Rome, San Francisco, Singapore and Venice.

At the same time, the emirate's own low-cost carrier flydubai offers bargain flights to more than a dozen Asian destinations, including Alexandria, Doha, Istanbul, Kathmadu, Kuwait, Luxor and Muscat.

Also within Asia, Air India Express flies to Amritsar, Chennai, Jaipur, Mangalore, Mumbai and Pune, among other destinations, while Pakistan International Airlines jets to destinations including Lahore, Peshwar and Quetta.

Among the many flag-carriers offering flights to Dubai from their respective capitals include Aeroflot, Air China, Air France, Air Finland, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Iran Air, Kenya Airways, Oman Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Meanwhile, the Dubai Royal Air Wing also jets in and out of the airport and is the only carrier making use of the VIP Pavilion.