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Dubai Gives Go Ahead For $35 Billion Al Maktoum Airport Expansion
The project will include a new passenger terminal, helping the emirate achieve its goal of operating the world’s largest airport by 2050.
On Sunday, April 28th, Dubai’s HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum gave the go-ahead to a major expansion project for Al Maktoum Airport (DWC).
The development will add a new passenger terminal to DWC, marking a major step in the emirate’s goal to transform the global transport hub into the world’s largest airport by 2050.
The construction project is valued at a massive $34.8 billion (AED128 billion), and is necessary to accommodate the projected surge in air travel over the coming years.
The DWC expansion plans were reportedly shelved in 2019. However, the project regained traction under the airport operating company Dubai Airports, who manage both Dubai International Airport (DXB) and DWC.
“HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum reviewed the strategic plan of the #Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects and approved designs for the new passenger terminal at Al Maktoum International Airport, which will be the largest in the world when fully operational,” announced the Dubai government on X, noting that the new terminal will increase annual capacity to over 260 million passengers.
Under the comprehensive development plans, Al Maktoum Airport will surpass the scale of Dubai International Airport by fivefold. Eventually, all of Dubai International’s operations will be moved to the new site.
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Dubai Airport CEO Paul Griffiths has emphasized the need for a new facility as DXB airport approaches its maximum annual capacity of 120 million passengers, explaining that the new development will transform airport operations.
“We are not planning an airport that has terminals. We’re going to completely change the business model for airports, make them far more intimate, and get rid of all the legacy processes that we’ve had to subject our customers to for far too long,” Griffiths stated.
News
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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