Struth! World's biggest airport [updated]

This terminal, just one of four at Dubai's existing airport, will be dwarfed in size by three at the city's new airport, which can handle 100 Airbus A380 double-deckers at the same time. (Middle East Aviation News)

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says if you have trouble navigating your way around international airports now, you'll be forgiven for thinking you'll maybe need a personal GPS and a cut-lunch to find your way around a new airport being planned for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE.)

Because it will be the biggest airport in the world with no fewer than five parallel runways spaced 800m apart so all can be used at the same time, and with the existing Dubai International Airport next to it, it will mean a total airport complex roughly 25 times the size of Sydney's Kingsford Smith.

With three terminal buildings able to handle 120 million passengers a year by 2020 and 160 million a year by 2030, one terminal of the new Dubai complex will be reserved exclusively for Emirates, the UAE's home carrier, another for other major international carriers, and the third for low-cost carriers.

And while it will be able to handle passengers coming off or getting onto up to 100 Airbus A380 double-decker aircraft at the same time – that's over 50,000 travellers – the new airport's planners and local Immigration and Customs authorities are already working together on how to make arriving and departing the new complex as hassle-free and as speedy as possible.