Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state's second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches “within the next 10 years” in a project worth nearly $35 billion, its ruler said Sunday.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's announcement marks the latest chapter in the rebound of its long-haul carrier Emirates after the coronavirus pandemic grounded international travel. Plans have been on the books for years to move the operations of the airport known as DXB to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central which had also been delayed by the repercussions of the sheikhdom's 2009 economic crisis.
“We are building a new project for future generations, ensuring continuous and stable development for our children and their children in turn,” Sheikh Mohammed said in an online statement. “Dubai will be the world’s airport, its port, its urban hub and its new global center.”
The announcement included computer-rendered images of curving, white terminal reminiscent of the traditional Bedouin tents of the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, the announcement said. The airport now has just two runways, like Dubai International Airport.
The financial health of the carrier Emirates has served as a barometer for the aviation industry worldwide and the wider economic health of this city-state. Dubai and the airline rebounded quickly from the pandemic by pushing forward with tourism even as some countries more slowly came out of their pandemic crouch.
The number of passengers flying through DXB surged last year beyond its total for 2019 with 86.9 million passengers. Its 2019 annual traffic was 86.3 million passengers. The airport had 89.1 million passengers in 2018 — its busiest-ever year before the pandemic, while 66 million passengers passed through in 2022.
Earlier in February, Dubai announced its best-ever tourism numbers, saying it hosted 17.15 million international overnight visitors in 2023. Average hotel occupancy stood at around 77%. Its boom-and-bust real estate market remains on a hot streak, nearing all-time high valuations.
But as those passenger numbers skyrocketed, it again put new pressure on the capacity of DXB, which remains constrained on all sides by residential neighborhoods and two major highways.
Al Maktoum International Airport, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from DXB, opened in 2010 with one terminal. It served as a parking lot for Emirates' double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft during the pandemic and slowly has come back to life with cargo and private flights in the time since. It also hosts the biennial Dubai Air Show and has a vast, empty desert in which to expand.
The announcement by Sheikh Mohammed noted Dubai's plans to expand further south. Already, its nearby Expo 2020 site has been offering homes for buyers.
“As we build an entire city around the airport in Dubai South, demand for housing for a million people will follow,” Dubai's ruler said. “It will host the world’s leading companies in the logistics and air transport sectors.”
However, financial pressures have halted the move in the past. Dubai's 2009 financial crisis, brought on by the Great Recession, forced Abu Dhabi to provide the city-state with a $20 billion bailout.
Meanwhile, the city-state is still trying to recover after the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the UAE, which disrupted flights and commerce for days.
This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central on Friday, April 26, 2024. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state's second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches "within the next 10 years" in a project worth nearly $35 billion, its ruler said Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
This artist's rendering provided by the government of Dubai shows plans for Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state's second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches "within the next 10 years" in a project worth nearly $35 billion, its ruler said Sunday, April 28, 2024. (Dubai government via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15.
Zelenskyy said “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive.
“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.
The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the U.S. and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say.
The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region, along with the ongoing drive into the eastern Donetsk region, come after months when the about 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budged. In the meantime, both sides have used long-range strikes in what largely became a war of attrition.
The Kharkiv incursion may be an attempt to create a “buffer zone” to protect Belgorod, an adjacent Russian border region battered by Ukrainian attacks.
Russian emergency services on Monday finished clearing the rubble in the region’s capital city of Belgorod, where a section of a residential building collapsed following what authorities said was Ukrainian shelling.
Fifteen bodies were pulled from the rubble, Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and 27 other people were wounded.
Another three people in the city of Belgorod were killed by shelling late Sunday, he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a Cabinet shakeup. Shoigu was widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russia had expected the operation to quickly overwhelm Ukraine’s army and for Ukrainians to broadly welcome Russian troops.
Zelenskyy said fighting in the Donetsk area is “no less intense” than in Kharkiv. He said the Kremlin aimed to “spread our forces thin” by opening a second active front in Kharkiv.
He described the area around Pokrovsk region, just inside the Ukrainian border in Donetsk, as “the most difficult.”
Pokrovsk was a town of around 60,000 people before the war and was until recently a two-hour drive from the front line. Now it is less than half that.
The capture of the Donetsk city of Avdiivka in February opened a door for the Kremlin’s troops to push westward, deeper into Donetsk. Russia illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions in 2022 shortly after it invaded Ukraine, and taking control of all of Donetsk is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo taken from video released by Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov's Telegram channel on Sunday, May 12, 2024, Russian emergency services transport a wounded person from a partially collapsed block of flats authorities said was hit during an attack by Ukrainian shelling, in Belgorod, Russia. In a statement, Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top law enforcement agency, said that the 10-story block had been hit by Ukrainian shelling. (Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov Telegram channel via AP)
Liudmila, 85, looks though the window of a bus after being evacuated from Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. Her husband was killed in their house after a Russian airstrike on the city. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
This photo released by Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov's Telegram channel on Sunday, May 12, 2024, volunteers help an elderly woman to leave an area of a partially collapsed block of flats after a missile attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Russian city of Belgorod, Russia.In a statement, Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top law enforcement agency, said that the 10-story block had been hit by Ukrainian shelling. (Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov Telegram channel via AP)
People sit in a bus after evacuation from Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers help Liudmila Kalashnik, 88, after evacuation from Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. Her husband was killed in their house after a Russian airstrike on the city. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
People walk with their belongings to the evacuation point in front of a building that was damaged by a Russian airstrike in Vilcha, near Vovchansk, Ukraine, Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Sunday, May 12, 2024, Russian emergency services work at the scene of a partially collapsed block of flats authorities said was hit during an attack by Ukrainian shelling, in Belgorod, Russia. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service on Sunday, May 12, 2024, Russian emergency services work at the scene of a partially collapsed block of flats authorities said was hit during an attack by Ukrainian shelling, in Belgorod, Russia. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
Ukrainian military medics of the 47th Brigade shift an injured comrade to a stretcher at the field hospital in Avdiivka direction, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Friday, May 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
