The world’s busiest international airport is shutting down. What’s next?

When Dubai International (DXB) first opened in 1960, its runway was a strip of compacted sand. Fast forward 65 years and it’s the busiest international airport on the planet, processing 92.3 million passengers last year alone (when including domestic passengers, it’s pipped by Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson as the world’s busiest).

Once consisting of a runway made from compacted sand, Dubai International is now the world’s busiest international airport.Credit: iStock

More of a luxury shopping mall with planes, DXB far outshines any of our airports and if, like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, you were ever stranded there, you probably wouldn’t mind too much. Where else can you buy a Rolex, a Rolls-Royce and a McChicken sandwich before your 3am boarding call? It’s basically The Ritz with baggage claim.

Unsurprisingly, though, it’s beginning to feel the strain. Hemmed in by highways and residential areas, DXB has nowhere to bulge, so last April UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced that operations would slowly be phased across to Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC), located 61 kilometres to the south of DXB, when its expansion is completed in 2032.

An artist’s impression of Dubai World Central – Al Maktoum International (DWC); expansion will be complete in 2032.

Backed by the desert, this hyper-modern, AI-purring, mega-hub will be aviation’s new darling with 400 aircraft gates (compared to the current 29) and poised to handle 260 million passengers per year once it’s fully operational.

With DXB being gently nudged aside like a beloved grandparent who’s just a little too slow for today’s high-speed air travel, what will become of the empty site? Dubai isn’t the kind of city to let nearly 3000 hectares of prime urban real estate, just a 15-minute drive from downtown, gather sand.

An artist’s impression of the new airport’s entrance hall.

This is a place that built a ski slope in the desert and named islands after continents. They dream big, so something more innovative and headline-worthy is also likely. We game-planned some potential scenarios and explored how other decommissioned airports around the world have been reinvented to see where Dubai might take inspiration.

Let’s taxi down the runway of possibilities.

Scenario 1: The World’s Swankiest Urban Park

Authorities could take the urban park route. Think Central Park meets Blade Runner.

Runways transformed into broad palm-shaded boulevards for cycling, jogging and e-scooting, lined smart-cooling systems to tackle the desert heat.

Concourse areas housing indoor gardens or vertical farms, and terminal buildings transformed into co-working hives crowned with rooftop restaurants playing vintage boarding announcements for hipster ASMR. Green, futuristic and, of course, wildly Instagrammable.

Berlin Tempelhof is now one of the world’s largest urban open spaces.Credit: Getty Images

Berlin Tempelhof is a masterclass in adaptive reuse. Once one of Europe’s busiest airports, it played a heroic role in the Berlin Airlift – where British and American forces delivered supplies to West Berlin during the Cold War Soviet blockade.

It closed in 2008 and now lives on as the 380-hectare Tempelhofer Feld, one of the world’s largest urban open spaces.

Locals rollerblade down its runways, fly kites across the former airfields, and gather for festivals and community events in the former aircraft hangars. Its massive terminal buildings now host trade fairs and exhibitions – from art shows to tech summits – and even emergency housing at times of crisis.

And, more recently, Berlin Tegel – the capital’s primary international airport that closed in 2021 and was replaced by Berlin Brandenburg Airport – is now being converted into Urban Tech Republic, a research and green technology hub for start-ups.

Like Tempelhof, Croydon was one of Europe’s big three pre-Second World War airports (alongside Paris-Le Bourget), and they’ve leaned into the vintage vibes – turning their Grade II-listed terminal into an aviation history centre and occasionally hiring it out for period film sets due to its well-preserved Art Deco architecture.

It works because it’s got that old-school charm. DXB, on the other hand, is more sci-fi than sepia, and too sleek and modern to pull off the retro museum look.

Scenario 2: An Airport City

Dubai is facing a housing shortage due to a surge in population and a booming economy, so there’s a high probability it might be converted into a futuristic urban neighbourhood: a hyper-connected “aerotropolis” that blends tech, luxury lifestyle and sustainability with Dubai’s signature ambition.

It could be a place where residents interact with city services through personalised AI assistants – booking health appointments, making restaurant reservations, or ordering drone deliveries like those currently in use in Shenzhen, China.

Where former runways become smart boulevards with kinetic pavements (to harvest footstep energy) and AI-optimized public transport and cohesive communities host rooftop parties in the former air traffic control tower or attend TED talks in aeroplane hangars rebranded as “creative event domes”.

Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport is the closest match. Once the stuff of pilot legends (and passenger nightmares) thanks to its nerve-jangling landings over apartment blocks, it shut down in 1998 and got a serious facelift.

Now called the Kai Tak Development, it’s a massive waterfront neighbourhood made up of schools and residential apartments organised along the old runway, which now hosts cruise ships instead of 747s, and framed by the verdant Sky Garden.

The Kai Tak Development is today a thriving neighbourhood.Credit: iStock

A handful of others have followed suit. In Greece, the former Ellinikon International Airport near Athens is in the process of becoming one of Europe’s largest urban regeneration projects. Already partially opened as the Ellinikon Experience Park, the site is set to include luxury housing, cultural venues, sports facilities, and one of the Mediterranean’s largest coastal parks.

And Stapleton Airport in Denver, Colorado, is now a walkable neighbourhood with schools and parks, where the airport’s control tower has been converted into a restaurant as a playful nod to its high-flying past.

For the moment, DXB’s future is all conjecture. “It should be stressed that the closure of DXB is only a distant prospect at the moment. It’s too far into the future to make the decision now,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

“But if a bigger Heathrow was built just up the road, would you keep both open? Probably not, is the answer – it’s operationally difficult and costly to maintain two mega airports, when one satisfies a city’s needs, and if the site was converted into park or a development, it would allow the northern part of Dubai to go high-rise – but those are options that the Dubai Government will no doubt consider in due course.”

It’ll be 15 years at least before any real changes take place, but it’s not hard to imagine the kids that will play tag on turf where superjumbos once touched down; travellers lazing in cafes where execs once stress-scrolled emails; and yes – TikTokers posing under the vintage departure boards (#RetroRunway).

The airport that once never slept will finally chill out, reborn as a smart, stylish, sun-soaked urban playground. DXB won’t fade – it’ll reinvent, Dubai-style: bigger, bolder and with better Wi-Fi.

Goodbye takeoffs, hello glow-up. So here’s to you, DXB: no delays, no turbulence – just clear skies ahead.

The Telegraph, London