Dubai World Central
Dubai World Central is the development currently under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It will be an economic zone to support a number of activities including logistics, aviation, commercial, exhibition, humanitarian, residential and other related businesses around Al Maktoum International Airport with the planned annual capacity of 12 million tonnes of cargo and 160 million passengers. The construction area is 140 square kilometres, almost two times the size of Hong Kong Island. The location is estimated to be the future home of 900,000 people.
The Dubai World Central combined with the Al Maktoum International Airport is expected to draw additional tourism to the Middle East, designed to handle 20 million visitors a year by 2020. The development has been designed on the basis of three key factors: Dubai’s geographic location, increasing importance of airports in the Middle East region, and the region’s booming aviation sector. The Dubai International Central functions as the central hub for the MENASA market, serving nearly one quarter of the world’s population and doing 3.6 trillion USD in business in the year 2009.
Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International was first announced back in 2004 as part of an extremely ambitious plan to develop the world’s biggest airport. Once complete, the project, which is being rolled out over several phases over the coming decades, will have five runways, four terminal buildings and capacity for 160m passengers and 12m tonnes of cargo annually.