Dubai’s position as an international aviation hub has been further enhanced by the opening of Dubai International airport’s concourse A.

The new concourse at Terminal 3 is the world’s first facility dedicated for the large A380 aircraft. The facility was partially opened at the beginning of the year, but is now completely open for business.

The additional capacity is much needed after passenger numbers at the airport hit 57.7 million in 2012, an increase of just over 13 per cent on the previous year.

The new concourse will increase the airport’s overall capacity to 75 million passengers.

In the long-term, Dubai will be moving passenger and cargo traffic from Dubai International to the new Dubai World Central airport near Jebel Ali. It is envisaged that the new airport will have the capacity to handle 120 million passengers, once it is completed in the early 2020s.

In the meantime, the airport is already operating cargo flights, and the latest statistics show that the airport handled 144 per cent more air freight in 2012, than compared with the previous year.

The airport handled 219,092 tonnes of air freight last year, an increase from 18,258 tonnes in 2011, its first full year of operation.