Dubai International Airport (IATA: DXB) is the largest hub in the Middle East and the home base of Dubai's flag carrier Emirates and its low-cost wing FlyDubai . In fact, it has grown at such a furious pace that the present terminals are bursting at the seams, especially during the peak hours around midnight.
The Dubai International Airport has three terminals and another one in the making as of end 2010.
Terminal 1 is the main terminal, used by most major airlines and long-haul flights.
Terminal 2 serves regional and low-cost flights, including all FlyDubai flights.
Terminal 3 is used exclusively by Emirates.
Terminals 1 and 3 are directly connected to each other via the airside (no immigration needed for transfer), while Terminal 2 is located at the other end of the airport. Terminals 1 and 3 are models of modern airport design, but Terminal 2, despite the recent renovations, is still reminiscent of developing world airports, with long check-in lines, queue-jumping and every other passenger checking in 70 kg of luggage. Shuttle buses between the three run every 20-30 min. However shuttles to Terminal 2 are sporadic at best, so a 30 min taxi ride may be your only option. A low-cost option for traveling to Terminal 2 is to catch the metro to a nearby station, such as GGICO metro station, and from there catch a taxi to Terminal 2.
The airport is famous for its duty-free shopping . However, prices in the airport's duty-free stores are equal or higher than what you can find in the many malls of the city. Alcohol here is very cheap, though. Alcohol is also available at an inbound duty free store situated in the baggage reclaim area. The amount of alcoholic beverages and beers should not exceed 4 liters of alcohol beverages, or 2 cartons of beer (each consisting of 24 cans, not exceeding 355 ml for each can or its equivalent).
Taxi: Most visitors will opt for public taxis from the airport, which are readily available just outside arrivals, which use the meter and start at Dhs 20. Taxis are on the left when you come out of terminal 1.
Public transport: Terminals 1 and 3 are served by the Dubai Metro. There are also buses just steps from the baggage claim, the most useful for visitors being lines 401 and 402 (Dhs 3), which go to the Al Sabkha and Al Ghubaiba bus terminals respectively.
Apart from the Dubai International Airport, Dubai is also developing the massive Al Maktoum International Airport located close to Jabel Ali within the Dubai World Central project. As of end 2010 only a few freighters are operating through this airport but commercial flights are expected to operate from this airport once completed, making this airport one of the busiest air hub for both cargo and passenger transportaion.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Dubai
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Dubai Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
