Dubai announced plans to build a $35 billion new terminal at its Al Maktoum International (DWC) airport with capacity to receive 260 million passengers annually.

The announcement, which came earlier this week, mentioned that Dubai International Airport’s (DXB) operations will be fully transferred to DWC in 10 years when the first phase of the airport’s new terminal is completed.

But what will happen to DXB?

Apparently, DWC — set to become the world’s largest airport once it is fully operational — will replace DXB, which will likely close once its operations are fully transferred, Khaleej Times reported.

According to Paul Griffiths, the CEO of Dubai Airports, there will be “no business case” to keep both airports.

He also said that a lot of the assets at Dubai’s current airport, which opened in September 1960, would become “quite old” over the next decade and rather than replacing them, it would make sense for DXB to close.

Griffiths added: “What we will do is take the opportunity to have a fresh start with a new site that’s five times larger than DXB, and that will be a major undertaking, obviously.”

As the DWC expansion takes place, DXB will continue to function as the “primary hub”, serving the needs of over 100 million travellers.

The hub’s traffic is expected to surpass 88.8 million travellers this year, being ranked as the world’s top airport for international passenger numbers for the 10th consecutive year in 2023.