Dubai is making its final preparations for the opening of the Al-Maktoum International airport passenger terminal with more than 1,000 Dubai residents testing out the new facility.

The new terminal is due to open on 27 October.

About 1,200 volunteers from Dubai tested the airport’s facilities, completing practice runs between check-in, departures and arrivals. The test run was to ensure the right signs were in place and that passenger traffic will flow smoothly when the airport opens.    

The airport operator, Dubai Airports, will be keen to avoid problems like those that emerged when London Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 opened in 2008. That openeing was marred by incidents of lost baggage and delayed flights.

Dubai’s Al-Maktoum International has only handled cargo operations, which began in 2010, and some private business aviation. The new passenger terminal is one of four planned and is designed to have a capacity of 5 million passengers a year, expandable to 7 million.

The new terminal will be serviced by one A380 capable runway and 64 remote aircraft stands.

Two airlines, Hungary-based Wizz Air and Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways are due to start flying from the new airport at the end of October. Saudi Arabia’s Nasair also signed a preliminary agreement to use the airport, but as yet no operational start date has been given and the airline is said to be reviewing its options.