Al Maktoum International: what is built, and what is announced
Two things about DWC are worth knowing before anything else. The operator’s own DWC airline directory lists 79 carriers — including Emirates, Qatar Airways, KLM and Lufthansa — and is plainly the group-wide directory rendered on the DWC address, not a list of who actually flies there. Nothing on the page says so. And the operator publishes no distance or drive time from the city, which for an airport whose defining characteristic is being far out is the most damaging omission on the site.
What is actually operating
DWC opened to passengers with Wizz Air as launch airline from 27 October 2013. The operator’s fact file publishes the built terminal at an “annual capacity of 26 million passenger”, 24 boarding gates, 104 check-in desks, seven baggage carousels, 40 arrivals immigration counters and 2,500 shaded parking spaces — and states DWC “welcomed more than 1.1 million guests in 2024” across “nearly 50,000 flight movements”. It names 20 cargo operators flying to as many as 43 cities.
Note that 1.1 million against a 26 million capacity is the real shape of the airport today. Note also that the operator’s two fact files disagree on the capacity itself — 26 million on the DWC file, 26.5 million on the main one. Both are Dubai Airports’, both dated 24 December 2019, both carrying newer figures spliced in.
Nowhere does the operator publish a plain statement of DWC’s current role or status. There is a live flight board and an unreliable airline list, and no sentence telling a visitor what the airport is for right now.
Getting there, and connecting
The one genuinely valuable published sentence about DWC is this:
“Guests travelling between DWC and DXB should clear passport control, collect their baggage, and arrange onward transport.”
So a DWC–DXB connection is landside and self-transfer. The operator advises allowing “sufficient time” and publishes no minimum connection time, no distance and no journey time for the trip between its own two airports.
There is no metro station at DWC, though the operator states this only by implication. It directs travellers to Ibn Battuta Mall metro station and bus routes F55 and N55, described as running every 30 minutes — with no fares and no first or last departure published. And the DXB metro page names two stations for the DWC connection, Ibn Battuta and Expo 2020, where the DWC page names only one. Both are the same operator.
The relocation: two official statements, the same day
On 28 April 2024 Dubai announced a new terminal at DWC. Two government-side sources described what it means for DXB, on the same day, and they do not agree.
| Publisher | What it says about DXB |
|---|---|
| Dubai Media Office | “all operations at Dubai International Airport will be transferred to it in the coming years” |
| Dubai AirportsThe operator | “DXB will continue to serve as the primary hub, meeting the needs of 100 million plus guests over the next few years as phase two of DWC takes shape.” The statement does not mention relocation at all |
The announced project, as published by the Media Office: cost “AED 128 billion”, capacity “260 million annually”, cargo “12 million tonnes per annum”, “400 aircraft gates”, “five parallel runways”, “four satellite concourses”, an airport area of “70 square kilometres”, and a terminal “five times the size of the current Dubai International Airport”. Timeline: “the first phase of the project will be ready within a period of 10 years, with a capacity to accommodate 150 million passengers”.
By 18 November 2025 the same authority published a different framing: the initial development is “planned to come online in the early 2030s”, and the expansion is described as a US$35 billion programme. Two currencies, two timelines, one authority. We publish both with their dates and convert nothing — “AED 128 billion” and “US$35 billion” are what was published, and reconciling them would be our arithmetic rather than the government’s statement.
No first-party source publishes an opening date for the new terminal, and none publishes a date on which DXB operations move. A Media Office release titled as a June 2026 progress milestone is still indexed in search and returns 404 at its own address, so the most recent official statement on the project’s progress is not retrievable. We do not cite a title we cannot verify.
Questions nobody answers
- How far is DWC from central Dubai? Not published by the operator anywhere.
- Which airlines actually fly there? The operator’s own directory is not a usable answer, and nothing on it warns you.
- What do the F55 and N55 buses cost, and when do they start and stop? Frequency published, fares and hours not.
- Is the terminal open 24 hours, and what is open inside it? Nothing published.
- How long should I allow between a DWC and a DXB flight? No figure published, only “sufficient time”.
- When does the new terminal open, and when does my flight move? No date published, and the government and the operator described the transfer differently on the same day.
- Will DXB close? Unresolved between two official sources.
The airport most visitors actually use is covered on DXB.
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Common questions
Which airlines fly to Al Maktoum airport?
You cannot answer this from the operator. Its own DWC airline directory lists 79 carriers including Emirates, Qatar Airways, KLM and Lufthansa — plainly the group-wide directory rendered on the DWC address — and nothing on the page says so.
How far is Al Maktoum airport from Dubai?
The operator publishes no distance and no drive time. For an airport whose defining practical characteristic is being far from the city, that is the most damaging omission on its site.
How do I get from DWC to DXB?
The operator's one genuinely useful sentence: guests travelling between them 'should clear passport control, collect their baggage, and arrange onward transport' — so it is landside and self-transfer. No minimum connection time, distance or journey time is published.
Is Dubai airport moving to Al Maktoum?
Two official sources described it differently on the same day. On 28 April 2024 the Dubai Media Office said 'all operations at Dubai International Airport will be transferred to it in the coming years'; Dubai Airports said 'DXB will continue to serve as the primary hub' and did not mention relocation at all.
When will the new DWC terminal open?
No first-party opening date exists. April 2024 published 'ready within a period of 10 years'; November 2025 published 'planned to come online in the early 2030s'. The cost was published as AED 128 billion in 2024 and US$35 billion in 2025 — two currencies, one authority, and we convert neither.