Departure
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MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Al Maktoum International Airport (OMDW/DWC) is a large international airport at Jebel Ali, southwest of Dubai, built around a single very long parallel runway pair and currently serving primarily as a cargo hub with a growing passenger operation. For a simulator pilot it offers an unusually long ILS-equipped runway and a glimpse of one of the world's most ambitious airport expansion projects still under construction.
Al Maktoum International Airport, also known as Dubai World Central (DWC), is an international airport at Jebel Ali in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, operated by Dubai Airports Company. It opened on 27 June 2010 as a cargo-only facility and has since grown into Emirates SkyCargo's hub, with limited scheduled passenger services alongside its freight operations. For a virtual pilot the field is notable for its enormous single runway pair, currently over 14,700 feet in length, and for the scale of the expansion plans that are intended eventually to make it the largest airport in the world.
The airport lies in Jebel Ali, Dubai, some 37 kilometres southwest of Dubai city, and forms the aviation core of the planned Dubai South development. It sits within Dubai's controlled airspace environment alongside the much busier Dubai International Airport, with which it should not be confused despite the shared metropolitan area.
Al Maktoum International has a single physical runway, 12/30, a hard-surfaced strip roughly 14,742 to 14,743 feet long and equipped with an ILS on both directions. Field elevation is 148 feet.
Al Maktoum Ground operates on 118.375 MHz, with Al Maktoum Tower on 118.625 MHz. An ATIS broadcast is available on 126.47 MHz, and an ATC backup frequency is provided on 118.725 MHz. The runway is equipped with an ILS for instrument approaches.
Construction of the airport's original 4,500 by 60 metre runway was completed in 2007 after 600 days of building work, with subsequent testing carried out to meet CAT III-C requirements. The airport was known during development under working names including Jebel Ali International Airport, Jebel Ali Airport City and Dubai World Central International Airport before being named Al Maktoum International Airport after the House of Maktoum, the ruling family of Dubai. It opened on 24 June 2010 with a single runway handling cargo flights only; the first flight into the airport, on 20 June 2010, was an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777F arriving from Hong Kong, described by Emirates as an unmitigated success. The airport was certified to handle passenger aircraft of up to 60 seats on 24 February 2011, and the first passenger aircraft, an Airbus A319CJ, touched down on 28 February 2011. Scheduled passenger flights began on 26 October 2013, with Flynas and Wizz Air the first two carriers to serve the field. Passenger numbers grew from 209,989 in the first half of 2015 to 410,278 in the first half of 2016, though low usage relative to its planned scale led to it being described at times as a white elephant. On 28 April 2024 Emirates announced that Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, had approved a major expansion of the airport, including a new passenger terminal costing around 128 billion AED, with plans for five parallel runways and 400 gates once complete.
Al Maktoum International currently functions mainly as a freight hub, with Emirates SkyCargo based there, alongside a modest scheduled passenger operation. Major expansion is under way, with plans for the airport eventually to become several times the size of Dubai International Airport and to take over as Emirates' and Flydubai's primary hub once the works are complete, with Dubai International envisaged to close down at that point.
