November 2027

In an official ceremony led by President Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Dubai, with attendance from the Emirs of Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm Al Quwain, Al Maktoum International Airport (IATA Code: DWC) was officially declared fully open on 2 November 2027.

Construction on the airport originally began in the early/mid 2000s, seeking to alleviate some of the congestion at the overcrowded Dubai International Airport (which has been operating more or less at its maximum cargo and passenger capacity since 2023). With a staggering price tag of 82b USD, DWC is one of the most expensive construction projects in modern history.

And for good reason: with its full opening in 2027, DWC is the largest airport in the world. Its five runways are capable of handling 12 million tons of cargo annually--over five million tons more than the second largest cargo airport, Hong Kong International Airport--and 200 million passengers annually (90 million more than the second largest passenger airport in the world, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport). The airport includes three massive passenger terminals (one for Emirates, one for other carriers, and one for budget carriers), including two luxury facilities for VIP passengers; multiple concourses; centers for executive and royal jets; dozens of hotels and shopping malls; and the region's only hub for A-, B-, and C-level maintenance checks on all aircraft with up to A380 levels of specifications, all connected by a dedicated light railway system connecting the disparate portions of the massive airport complex. Up to four aircraft can land at the airport simultaneously.

DWC, located significantly south of downtown Dubai, is connected to the rest of the country via a series of transportation options. Passengers can use the Coastal Corridor Maglev to travel to any city along the Emirati Gulf Coast in less than half an hour, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, or Umm Al Quwain. Critically, the CCM connects DWC to Dubai International Airport in downtown Dubai, allowing passengers to transfer from one airport to another in under ten minutes (meaning passengers can land at one airport, travel to the other using the CCM, and then take a second connecting flight from there). Alternative options include the Dubai Metro, which will be fully extended out to Al Maktoum International Airport through the Blue and Purple Lines starting in 2031. Finally, for travel to the rest of the UAE, Etihad Railway will have passenger and cargo service connecting to DWC, allowing people and good to land at the airport and immediate travel to just about any other city in the UAE or in the Arab Gulf region, starting in 2030. Of course, passengers can always take private transportation: the airport includes a staggering 100,000 parking place in its vicinity.

DWC is part of a larger push by the UAE and by DSAUMA to transform the UAE into the region (and indeed, the world's) premier logistics hub. About a third of the world's population lives within a four hour flight of Dubai, while 2/3rds of the population lives within an eight hour flight. DWC is also within four to ten hours of flight of the major population centers of Asia, Europe, and Africa, making it perfectly positioned for the long-haul air freight sector. Below four hours, long-haul cargo jets cannot compete with smaller regional carriers, while cost efficienies drop precipitously after ten hours of flight, meaning that cargo jets have to look for somewhere to land and refuel around that point in order to maintain cost competitiveness. This means that aircraft flying between Asia, Europe, and Africa all look to make a brief stopover in the Middle East--something which DWC is perfectly positioned to provide.

Dubai is hoping to transform DWC into more than just a passthrough for foreign-made goods. As part of its ongoing efforts to diversify the country's economy, Dubai has announced the creation of a single, unified Free Economic Zone surrounding the airport, the port of Jebel Ali (the largest port in the Middle East and one of the largest ports in the world), the Jebel Ali Industrial Area, and Dubai Investments Park. Under this program, foreign firms are able to operate businesses outside of the normal restrictions of the UAE (which include restrictions on foreign ownership of firms and some other onerous red tape that foreign investors tend not to be fond of). It will allow manufacturing, assembly, and value-added services to occur within a roughly 600km² zone, with a world class airport and seaport within less than 20km (depending on where in the zone a facility is located). The FEZ will also include world-class rail services from Etihad Railway and the Gulf Railway, meaning any goods manufactured in the zone can be easily transported to other countries in the Gulf region, or, when the civil war in Saudi Arabia ends, across the Saudi Landbridge, cutting upwards of two weeks off of the sea journey around the Arabian Peninsula.

The economic promise of this program is huge for interested firms. Using Jebel Ali, foreign firms will be able to import cheap materials from regional low- to middle-income economies in South/Southeast Asia, MENA, and East Africa, which can then be processed into high-value goods in the FEZ before being exported to European, African, or Asian markets through either sea freight out of Jebel Ali or air freigh out of DWC. Firms participating in the FEZ are expected to significantly cut their logistics costs by concentrating their supply chains in the one location.

DWC and the surrounding FEZ is expected to be a massive boon to the economy of the Dubai and the UAE. In 2014, the considerably smaller Dubai International Airport was estimated to contribute ~420,000 jobs and 26.7b USD to Dubai's economy in 2013--or 27 percent of its GDP and 21 percent of its employment--through the airport and related economic activity. With the opening of DWC, conservative estimates predict that the aviation sector alone will account for 88.1b USD of Dubai's GDP and 2 million of its jobs--or 44.7 percent of its GDP and 35.1 percent of its total employment, respectively. When factoring in added economic activity from the related FEZ and the network benefits of the new rail projects throughout the Gulf and the expansions of Jebel Ali Port (which is set to be expanded to an annual throughput of 56 million TEU of container traffic and 150m tons of general cargo, automobiles, and bulk cargo by 2030, making it one of the world's largest ports), this is expected to account for an even greater share of Dubai's economy.