Dubai's plan to build the world's largest airport by capacity is now a construction site at scale. The AED128 billion (about $35 billion) expansion of Al Maktoum International Airport, approved in April 2024, had AED13 billion of contracts under execution as of mid-2026, with Dubai Airports planning to award more than AED55 billion in further contracts during 2026.
The published construction figures give a sense of the effort: 10 million work hours logged over 15 months, 17,000 piles driven, 45 million cubic metres of earth moved, and about 9,000 workers on site, a number Dubai Airports expects to rise to roughly 120,000 at peak construction. A second runway is the next infrastructure milestone, due by the end of 2027.
Phase one is targeted for 2032, delivering 150 million annual passengers through a new terminal and four concourses. The full master plan targets 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo a year, with five parallel runways and more than 430 aircraft stands. Dubai intends the airport to eventually succeed Dubai International as the city's primary hub.
The photograph above shows the existing Al Maktoum International Airport terminal. It does not show the future expansion, which is under construction on the wider Dubai World Central site.
Photography: Marlin Le, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
