Al Maktoum International Airport

Al Maktoum International Airport is an international airport in Jebel Ali, southwest of Dubai, United Arab Emirates that opened on 27 June 2010. It is the main part of Dubai World Central, a planned residential, commercial and logistics complex.The airport will contain transport modes, logistics and value-added services, including manufacturing and assembly, in a single free economic zone. It will cover an area of 35000acre. The airport has a projected annual capacity of of freight and between 160 million and 260 million passengers. As of December 2014, only a handful of airlines operate passenger services out of Al Maktoum International Airport.HistoryConstructionThe 4500x runway was completed in 600 days and subsequently underwent tests over the following six to eight months in order to fulfil its CAT III-C requirements. Construction of the airport's cargo terminal, the Al Maktoum Airport Cargo Gateway, which cost around US$75 million, was 50% complete by the end of 2008.During the first phase of the project, the airport is planned to handle around 200000t of cargo per year, with the possibility of increasing to 800000t. The passenger terminal at this phase is designed to have a capacity of 5 million passengers per year. It was planned to be the largest airport in the world in terms of freight handled, moving up to per year in 2013.The project was originally expected to be fully operational by 2017, although the 2007–2012 global financial crisis subsequently postponed the completion of the complex to 2027. Previous working names for the airport complex have included "Jebel Ali International Airport", "Jebel Ali Airport City", and "Dubai World Central International Airport". It has been named after the late Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the former ruler of Dubai. The total cost of the airport has been estimated by the Dubai government to be $82 billion.