Most travellers don’t pick between Dubai’s two airports. The airline does. But the airport code on your ticket changes how far you’ll drive, how you get into the city and what your transfer looks like, so it pays to know the difference before you land. If your ticket already says DWC, our Al Maktoum airport transfer page covers the pickup itself.
The short answer
DXB is the airport for central Dubai. Choose it if you’re staying in Deira, Downtown or Business Bay, heading to Sharjah or the northern emirates, or want the Metro.
DWC makes sense when your airline only flies there, or when you’re staying in Dubai South, Jebel Ali or Abu Dhabi. For Dubai Marina the gap is small: 37 km from DWC against 33 km from DXB. For Palm Jumeirah, DXB is about 9 km closer.
DWC vs DXB at a glance
| DXB, Dubai International | DWC, Al Maktoum International | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Al Garhoud, next to Deira | Dubai South, near Jebel Ali |
| Passenger terminals | Three: T1, T2 and T3 | One |
| Who flies there | Emirates, flydubai and about 50 other international airlines (mid 2026) | Seasonal charter and scheduled flights, plus cargo |
| Metro | Red Line stations at T1 and T3 | None |
| Buses | RTA buses from Arrivals at all three terminals | F55 to EXPO Metro Station, N55 to Ibn Battuta, every 30 min |
| Taxis | Dubai Taxi ranks at each terminal, AED 25 starting fare | Dubai Taxi, booked through the Bolt app, AED 25 starting fare |
| Parking | Paid, from AED 5 for 5 minutes at T3 | Free |
| Pickup at Arrivals | No pickup area, collectors use the car park | No dedicated pickup area, collectors use the car park |
| Annual capacity | Around 115 million passengers at most | 26 million today, 150 million planned for the early 2030s |
Sources: Dubai Airports for transport, parking and DWC terminal capacity; The National, September 2026 for DXB capacity and the DWC phase one target.
Which airlines fly to Al Maktoum airport?
The DWC airline directory lists 79 airlines, from Aeroflot and Air Arabia to Wizz Air, and it includes Emirates, flydubai, Etihad and Qatar Airways. Don’t read that as a timetable. Dubai Airports describes DWC’s passenger traffic as “a number of seasonal charter and scheduled operations”, and the list includes holiday charter airlines such as TUI, Corendon, Enter Air and Neos.
For a snapshot of a normal day: on 12 October 2026 the DWC arrivals board showed UTair flights from Moscow Vnukovo and Tyumen, a Pobeda flight from Vnukovo, and a BeOnd flight from Malé that was cancelled. That was four arrivals in the hour we looked at, against a constant stream at DXB.
The catch is overlap. The DXB directory marks flydubai, Wizz Air, Gulf Air, Jazeera Airways, flynas and Eurowings as flying from both airports. Only the three-letter code on your ticket tells you where you land.
Where is DWC, and how far is Al Maktoum airport from Dubai?
DWC is in Dubai South, on the south-western side of the city near Jebel Ali. Dubai Airports puts it about 60 km from DXB. Passenger flights started on 27 October 2013, and the airport also handles cargo, private jets and the Dubai Airshow.
Here’s how the two airports compare by road. Distances and times come from the Rome2Rio route planner, checked on 12 October 2026, and assume clear roads.
| Going to | From DXB | From DWC |
|---|---|---|
| Downtown Dubai | 14 km, about 13 min | 46 km, about 35 min |
| Dubai Marina | 33 km, about 25 min | 37 km, about 32 min |
| Palm Jumeirah | 33 km, about 26 min | 42 km, about 31 min |
| Sharjah city | 16 km, about 14 min | 69 km, about 49 min |
| Abu Dhabi city | 147 km, about 1 hr 23 min | 117 km, about 1 hr 7 min |
Treat those times as the best case. Weekday rush hour stretches every one of them, and the Dubai to Sharjah roads are the worst for it. A DWC to Sharjah run at 6 pm is a different trip from the same run at 11 am.
The table settles a few myths. People call DWC the Marina-side airport, yet it’s a few kilometres further from the Marina than DXB is. It’s also three times as far from Downtown. And it’s the only one of the two that saves you real distance on the drive to Abu Dhabi, about 30 km.
The DWC expansion and the planned move from DXB
Dubai has announced that Al Maktoum International will replace Dubai International. What’s official, with dates:
- In April 2024, Dubai’s ruler approved the designs for a new passenger terminal at DWC, a project put at AED 128 billion, or about US$35 billion. The Dubai Media Office said “all operations at Dubai International Airport will be transferred to it in the coming years” (AJOT, reporting Bloomberg).
- Dubai Airports’ own figures are five runways, capacity for 150 million passengers a year within the next decade, and eventually 260 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo (Dubai Airports).
- In September 2026, chief executive Paul Griffiths said phase one is on track for the early 2030s, the second runway is due by the end of 2027, and flydubai could start moving five or six aircraft to DWC as early as 2027. He said DXB operations will move once the 150 million passenger phase is working, phased over several months.
What isn’t official is a date for Emirates or for the last flight at DXB. Some trade press has named 2032. The plan has slipped before, too: work on the earlier DWC expansion stopped in 2019. Our reading for anyone booking now is simple. For trips in 2026 and 2027, DXB stays the main airport, and DWC stays the smaller one you’ll only use if your ticket says so.
What DWC vs DXB means for your transfer
Start with the code on your ticket and send us the flight number. That settles the airport and the terminal, and our Dubai airport terminals guide explains why the terminal matters at DXB.
At DWC, public transport is thin. The two bus routes run every 30 minutes and take a Nol card only, with no cash. Taxis are booked through the Bolt app. With luggage, a pre-booked car is the simple option, and our Al Maktoum airport to Dubai transfer covers the drive to Downtown, Marina and the Palm. Heading to the capital instead? The DWC to Abu Dhabi transfer is the shorter of the two airport runs to Abu Dhabi.
The pickup itself works the same way at both airports. Neither has a pickup lane at Arrivals, so our driver meets you inside the hall with a name board and walks you to the car park. At DWC that parking is free. You get 60 minutes of free waiting at either airport, and we track the flight.
The fare reflects the distance. A DWC to Downtown transfer is about 46 km against 14 km from DXB, so expect a different quote for the same hotel depending on the airport. We give you a fixed fare on WhatsApp before the trip either way. If your route crosses into Abu Dhabi, our Salik and Darb tolls guide explains the toll systems on each side.
Connecting between the two airports on separate tickets is the one scenario to plan carefully. You clear passport control, collect your bags, cover about 60 km and check in again. Dubai Airports’ own suggestion is a taxi, or the Metro to Ibn Battuta and a bus from there. With bags and a deadline, book a car: our DXB to Al Maktoum airport transfer can be booked on WhatsApp at any hour, and if you’re landing at DXB first, our Dubai Airport transfer page covers pickups from all three terminals.
