Dubai Will Award Dh55 Billion in Al Maktoum Airport Contracts by Year-End

Dubai Airports has confirmed it will award around Dh55 billion in contracts before the end of 2026 for construction of the new terminal at Al Maktoum International, the airport also known by its code DWC. That comes on top of roughly Dh13 billion already let this year. The scale of the spending is the story: this is not an expansion of an existing facility so much as the construction of an entire replacement hub, intended over time to take on the traffic currently handled at Dubai International.

The logic behind the project is that Dubai International has effectively run out of room. It sits in a built-up part of the city with limited scope for new runways or terminal footprint, and it is already among the busiest international airports in the world. Al Maktoum, out in Dubai South, has land. Moving the hub is the only way to keep growing, and the emirate’s aviation strategy depends on that growth continuing — Emirates’ entire business model rests on connecting traffic through a single mega-hub.

Contract awards of this size are also a signal to the wider construction and aviation supply chain. Terminal projects of this scale involve baggage systems, automated people movers, stands and taxiways, and each of those is a multi-year programme in its own right. Letting Dh55 billion of work within a single calendar year suggests the programme is moving from design into heavy execution, and that the timeline is being driven hard rather than allowed to drift.

For travelers, nothing changes yet. Al Maktoum currently handles a modest share of Dubai’s passenger traffic, mostly low-cost and charter operations, and the bulk of flights continue to use Dubai International. The transition, when it comes, will be phased over years rather than executed overnight. But anyone who connects through Dubai regularly should expect the airport experience to change significantly over the next decade, and should keep an eye on which of the two airports a booking actually uses.

Sources: The National, Aviation Week