Dubai's second airport to open on June 27

Dubai’s second airport, Al Maktoum International, is on track for its June 27 opening, Dubai Airports CEO has said.

The world’s largest airport will launch with freighter operations in four months time with passenger operations being introduced at a later date, Paul Griffiths said.

He told Emirates Business the aviation body was in advanced talks with various international airlines to start operations from the airport.

“We are talking to a number of airlines. Several of them have expressed interest. We have put a proposition to them and we hope to be able to make some announcements shortly as to who the initial airline operators will be,” Griffiths said.

He told the paper he could not give an exact date when passenger operations would begin because they were instead working to a “state of readiness”.

“The freighter operation clearly will give us a good test of the operational facilities, the runway, the control tower and air traffic control. But we are not committing at this point in time to a definite date for passenger operations. But it will be at some stage in the future after the freighters have started [operations],” he told the paper.

Al Maktoum International is part of the $33bn Dubai World Central development in Jebel Ali.