The most important tourist destination of the Middle East, the size and capacity of the Dubai Airport surely sends a signal about the number of people coming to this part of the world. Managed by the Department of Civil Aviation of Dubai, the airport is located in the north eastern part of Dubai called Al Garhoud. It is the base for one of the most important airlines carrier in the world, the Emirates and also runs some low cost carriers like FlyDubai.
Built on an area of 8,640 acres of land, the Dubai Airport is known to be the 12th busiest airport of the world in terms of managing passengers. In 2012 it is known to have handled 57.7 million passengers and 2.27 million tonnes of cargo. There 130 airlines which pass through the Dubai International Airport and connect 220 destination across the world except for Antarctica. The recent most development has been that Qantas air also operates from Dubai partly because of its partnership with the Emirates.
The largest terminal of the Dubai Airport is the Terminal 3 which under the exclusive use of the Emirates Airlines apart from the Terminal 1.The speciality of the Terminal 3 which got opened for public in the year 2008 has been that using $4.5 billion it has become the largest building in the world in terms of the floor area and also the largest airport terminal in the world. This is known to have a capacity of managing about 75 million passengers and sets perfectly with the future plans of Dubai as city foresees the figure of 90 million passengers using the airport in the future. For managing this humongous volume, the Dubai Airport employs a huge number of local populations and also contributes generously to the GDP of UAE.
In the upcoming plans of the Dubai Airport, there is a proposal of coming up with a new concourse D by the year 2016 which will share the load of Concourse C and thereby dedicating Concourse C totally to the service of the Emirates Airlines which currently operates from A, B, and C. Emirates also has a cargo service, named the Emirates SkyCargo which also operates from the Dubai Airport and carries cargo to far and wide destinations across the globe. There are facilities within the Dubai Airport which help operating the Dubai Aviation Club and where private owners can fly for leisure within the city and also wannabe pilots are given trainings.
Within the Dubai Airport it hardly seems to be a transit location for the millions of people who enjoy their time going through the innumerable shopping stores, restaurants, and other leisure areas. There is a range of duty free shops which have been recently doubled in space to 15,000 square metres and are famous for doing transactions in the range of 23.5 million yearly. Apart from these there are prayer rooms, spas, gyms, games, internet and last three huge hotels for people to stay for extended stop over. Throughout the airport televisions are fitted which keep entertaining either through news, or sports updates and games, or through movies.