Fifty million passengers, 6,000 flights a week and a lot of baggage equals an incredible task for Dubai airport staff – from the baggage handlers on the ground to the air traffic controllers monitoring the skies – to keep things running smoothly.

Chief Executive of operator Dubai Airports said, Increasing congestion at Dubai International will push airlines into moving over to Dubai’s future mega hub Al Maktoum International.

Dubai International Airport is one of the world’s busiest airport for foreign passengers, with more than 70 million seen through its terminals in 2014. Typically, there are around 1,000 flights a day with traffic at its busiest overnight between 10pm and 2am when it operates at 93 per cent of capacity, Griffiths said.

Many airlines still prefer to be at Dubai International because of its proximity to the downtown Dubai area, and because the world’s biggest airline on international routes, Emirates, is not moving over to Al Maktoum International until around 2025. But still, airlines are “seriously considering” moving to the new airport, Griffiths said.

Al Maktoum International at Dubai South, previously Dubai World Central (DWC), only opened its passenger terminal in 2013. Last year, its first full year of passenger operations, Al Maktoum International handled 845,046 passengers but largely due to a temporary runway closure at Dubai International that moved flights over to the secondary airport.

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