Al Maktoum Airport: The AED 128 Billion Project Reshaping Southern Dubai

Al Maktoum International is being rebuilt at AED 128 billion into the world's largest airport by capacity: more than 260 million passengers a year, five parallel runways, two terminals and seven concourses. Dubai Airports said in September 2026 that the first major phase is on track to come on stream in the early 2030s with capacity for 150 million passengers annually, and that the next major infrastructure milestone is the opening of the second runway by the end of 2027.

Most buyers have heard the headline number. Fewer have followed the timeline, and the timeline has moved twice this year. Here is where the project actually stands, in the order the announcements came.

DWC at a glance

• Project cost: AED 128 billion
• Construction packages under execution: more than AED 13 billion
• Additional packages being prepared for award: more than AED 55 billion
• Second runway: built, opening targeted by end of 2027
• First major phase: early 2030s
• Initial phase capacity: 150 million passengers a year
• Full capacity: more than 260 million passengers a year
• Runways at full build-out: five
• Concourses: seven
• Aircraft stands: more than 430

Figures as officially stated. Cost dates from April 2024; specification and construction figures from the June 2026 government update; phase timing and runway opening from the September 2026 Dubai Airports update.

What was approved, and what it becomes

Sheikh Mohammed approved the designs and the construction start on 28 April 2024, at a cost of AED 128 billion. The specification was revised upward in the June 2026 government update:

• Annual capacity exceeding 260 million passengers on completion of the final phase.
• 12 million tonnes of air cargo a year.
• Five parallel runways operating independently.
• Two passenger terminals and seven concourses.
• More than 430 aircraft stands.

Worth noting that this supersedes the 2024 announcement, which described four satellite concourses and more than 400 aircraft stands. The concourse count and the stand count have both gone up. The AED 128 billion figure dates from April 2024 and has not been revised.

For scale: the busiest airport in the world today handles a little over 100 million passengers a year.

Where construction actually stands

The June 2026 government update is the most detailed progress statement published, and it answers the scepticism a project this size invites:

• Packages valued at more than AED 13 billion currently under execution.
• More than 17,000 concrete piles installed.
• Excavation works exceeding 45 million cubic metres.
• More than 10 million work hours over the preceding 15 months.
• On-site workforce of around 9,000, expected to rise to approximately 120,000 at peak construction.
• Packages with a combined value exceeding AED 55 billion being prepared for award by the end of 2026.

That AED 55 billion tranche covers the substructure and superstructure of the Western Passenger Terminal, the first four aircraft concourses, the Automated People Mover, and the Baggage Handling System. The scale of packages already under execution and those being prepared for award provides a clearer measure of current project activity than the final capacity figures alone.

When will Al Maktoum airport open?

The language has shifted over the course of 2026, and it is worth reading both statements rather than picking one.

In June 2026, the Dubai Government said the project remained on course to commence operations in 2032, in accordance with its long-term master plan. In September 2026, Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths said development was moving full speed ahead, with the first major phase on track to come on stream in the early 2030s, providing capacity for 150 million passengers annually.

The two are not in conflict. 2032 sits inside the early 2030s, and nothing in the September statement retracts the June one. What has changed is the precision of the language, from a specific year in a formal government project update to a band in a media briefing. The honest reading is that the most recent official wording is early 2030s.

Has the second runway been completed or opened?

Both statements are true and they describe different things. The June 2026 update reported the completion of the second runway, framed explicitly as preparation for rehabilitating the existing runway. The September 2026 update said the next major infrastructure milestone will be the opening of that runway by the end of 2027. The two announcements therefore describe different milestones: physical completion of the runway and its subsequent operational opening.

When will Dubai International close?

No date has been published, and the most recent official language is deliberately capacity-based rather than date-based. In September 2026 Griffiths described the transition as phased as capacity becomes available, with DXB operations ultimately moving to DWC once the initial 150 million passenger capacity is available. He mentioned flydubai potentially moving five or six aircraft as early as next year. Nothing in that is a commitment to a date. Any specific closure year you see quoted, and several circulate, comes from media derivation rather than an official source.

What this means for Dubai South

The airport sits inside Dubai South, and two official statements from the April 2024 announcement describe the scale of what is planned around it. Sheikh Mohammed said that as a city is built around the airport in Dubai South, demand for housing for a million people will follow. Khalifa Al Zaffin, Executive Chairman of Dubai Aviation City Corporation, said the project will generate an estimated workforce and residential requirement for over a million people living and working in Dubai South.

Read those carefully. The first is a forecast of derived housing demand. The second is a combined estimate covering people both living and working in the area. Neither is a committed target of one million permanent residents, and anyone presenting it that way is going beyond what was said.

On pricing, Dubai South carried the lowest price per square foot of the established freehold districts we tracked in H1 2026, at roughly AED 1,190, with two-bedroom asking prices averaging around AED 1.41 million and prices rising over 3% in a half-year when several central districts softened.

Dubai South's relatively lower entry prices and the scale of planned aviation infrastructure make it an area investors are likely to watch closely. But infrastructure spending does not guarantee property appreciation. Prices will also depend on residential supply, population growth, rental demand, handover volumes and wider Dubai market conditions. Given the airport's multi-year construction programme, the DWC story is better evaluated over a long holding period than through assumptions about immediate airport-led price movement.

Airport infrastructure versus metro infrastructure: why the property effects differ

These two kinds of infrastructure are often discussed interchangeably in Dubai property commentary, and they behave differently.

• Metro affects daily accessibility. The benefit is local, concentrated around stations, and it changes how residents move through the city every day.
• Airport expansion affects employment, logistics activity, commercial development and housing requirements. The benefit is regional, diffused across a wider area, and it builds over a longer period.

The two also run on different timetables. For confirmed metro infrastructure and the communities along the eastern corridor, see our Dubai Metro Blue Line guide, which covers the line station by station.