Dubai Airports achieves many firsts as it turns 60

Dubai Airports has achieved many firsts as it turns 60. Since opening on September 30, 1960, DXB has served 1.115 billion passengers travelling on more than 7.47 million flights connecting over 240 destinations in 95 countries across the globe.

The occasion celebrates a remarkable success story driven by Dubai Airports’ ‘future forward’ thinking that has seen DXB emerge as the world’s leading airport.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Thursday made a special reference to Dubai Airports in a tweet as DXB completed 60 years.

“I was ten years old when I first stood at London’s Heathrow Airport, amazed at its size and the number of planes and people at the airport...Several years ago, British newspapers appeared with a borad headline “Dubai Airport bypasses Heathrow Airport”... I learned that there is no impossible dream,” he said in the tweet.

DXB’s history is replete with examples of forward thinking and aviation firsts. It was the first airport in the Middle East to feature a gated terminal, along with the largest Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower when Sheikh Rashid terminal opened in 2000, and the first to launch e-gates in 2002.

In 2008, it opened the largest airport terminal in the world (Terminal 3) and three years later the world’s first concourse purpose-built for the A380 (Concourse A). It is home to the world’s leading international airline and duty-free retail operation. DXB became the world’s busiest international airport in 2014 and welcomed its billionth passenger in December 2018.