Dubai's second airport set to reopen in May 2022 after two years' closure

Dubai’s second airport, Dubai World Central (DWC), is set to reopen in May 2022, two years after the pandemic suspended its operations. 

“We’ve got to do some work on the runway at Dubai International Airport and with the reduction in capacity we’ll start to move operations back to DWC,” DWC chief executive officer Paul Griffiths said at Dubai Air Show on November 14, 2021.

“But it’s really determined by the recovery of traffic overall.”

Airlines like Wizz Air, a number of Russian airlines and some FlyDubai operations will resume at DWC. Emirates, in the meantime, will carry out passenger flights out of Dubai International Airport (DXB) for the foreseeable future.

In order to prepare for higher tourist arrivals, concourse A at DXB is set to reopen on November 24, 2021, bringing the airport to full operation. 

Griffiths added that he is optimistic the airline industry will recover by the start of 2025. “I’m hoping that might be a fairly conservative estimate. We may well see a rather rapid recovery if the last few weeks are anything to go by.”

Dubai World Central, also known as Al Maktoum International Airport, opened in June 2010 and is located at Jebel Ali, 37 kilometres southwest of Dubai. It first began its operations as a cargo airport, and passenger flights commenced at the airport in October 2013.