The new airport is set to have eight smaller airports in one…

When open, Al Maktoum International Airport is set to be one of the world’s biggest airports. It is just one of Dubai’s very many megaprojects, and over ATM, Paul Griffiths, the Dubai Airports’ CEO, shared a huge detail: it will feature underground trains.

Al Maktoum International, or DWC as it is most commonly called, will feature a train system that will make passengers’ journeys a lot easier… aka, the journey will cut short walking time.

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Griffiths made the announcement during Arabian Travel Market 2025. According to an article by Khaleej Times, Griffiths shared that the train ride will be a ’20-minute journey.’

He added, “The underground system will be very comprehensive and pretty quick to reduce travel distance. It is such a large site that it would be about a 20-minute journey time, and we have to make it fast, efficient, and competitive in terms of circulation of transfer passengers to get to and from the airport.”

A number of designs are still being considered, but it will be a train with seats, as the journey could take ‘anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes.’

An earlier report stated that Griffiths explains that the new airport will have eight smaller airports in one. Therefore, the trains will eliminate the need for people to scramble from one spot to another.

*Sheikh Hamdan reveals details about Dubai Loop underground project*

When will the airport be ready?

Its completion date is set to 2050, but plans are in place for Phase 1 to be complete by 2030 where it will support an annual capacity of 130 million.

The deadline is quite far off, and so it’s hard to set into concrete what the airport will look like or what facilities will be included.

Plus, with the ever-changing state of the world in terms of AI and technology, what could be ‘technologically advanced’ right now will be ‘old’ by the time 2050 rolls around. So we just have to wait and see what the finished airport will look like closer to the time.

@dwcairport

Images: DWC