In pictures: Dubai Airports turns 60

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Thursday made a special reference to Dubai Airports in a tweet as DXB completed 60 years.

“I was ten years old when I frst stood at London’s Heathrow Airport, amazed at its size and the number of planes and people at the airport...Several years ago, British newspapers appeared with a borad headline “Dubai Airport bypasses Heathrow Airport”... I learned that there is no impossible dream,” he said in the tweet.

Since opening on September 30, 1960, DXB has served 1.115 billion passengers travelling on more than 7.47 million flights connecting over 240 destinations in 95 countries across the globe.

Sheikh Mohammed inspects an aircraft at DXB airport.

DXB’s history is replete with examples of forward thinking and aviation firsts. It was the first airport in the Middle East to feature a gated terminal, along with the largest Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower when Sheikh Rashid terminal opened in 2000, and the first to launch e-gates in 2002

Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, tweeted: "In six decades, @DXB Airport rose from being a modest runway with a small building, to ranking 1st as the world’s busiest hub by international passenger traffic, serving 1.1 billion passengers since 1960."

Sheikh Hamdan posted a collage of photos showing him and Sheikh Mohammed at DXB onto his Twitter page and wrote on the occasion: “On DXB’s’s 60th anniversary, we congratulate the @DubaiAirports team, led by @HHAhmedBinSaeed for a journey that started from a desert to embrace the clouds through world-leading airline, @Emirates. Dubai now looks forward to a future that is true to the vision of @HHShkMohd.”

Here's a look at the airport in its early days.

DXB is home to the world’s leading international airline and duty-free retail operation. DXB became the world’s busiest international airport in 2014 and welcomed its billionth passenger in December 2018.

Today in spite of the pandemic, DXB is doing well. Today, it serves 51% of the destinations, in 77% of the countries, and 58% of the airlines it did pre-COVID-19.