Al Maktoum International Airport Vertiport (DWC)

About

Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) is Dubai's second international airport, located at Dubai South / Jebel Ali. On Sunday 9 November 2025, Joby Aviation landed its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft at DWC following a 17-minute piloted flight from its Margham flight-test facility, marking the UAE's first piloted point-to-point eVTOL flight in shared airspace.

As of 1 May 2026, no formal DWC vertiport has been announced by Joby Aviation, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Skyports Infrastructure or the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) in primary sources. Joby's 17 November 2025 release lists only four sites in the initial Dubai vertiport network — DXB, Dubai Mall, Atlantis the Royal and the American University of Dubai. A DWC vertiport is referenced in non-whitelisted media reporting but not in primary-source channels. This page covers DWC strictly as the confirmed flight-test landing site pending further announcement.

Key facts

Timeline

1. 2024-02-11
   Joby–RTA–Skyports tripartite agreement signed at World Governments Summit. Initial four-site Dubai network identified — DWC not among the four. [joby-ir-2024-02-11]
2. 2025-11-09
   Joby completes the UAE's first piloted point-to-point eVTOL flight, landing at Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) after a 17-minute flight from Margham. [joby-ir-2025-11-17]
3. 2025-11-17
   Joby announces three new vertiports — Dubai Mall, Atlantis the Royal, American University of Dubai — alongside DXB. DWC is not named as part of the vertiport network. [joby-ir-2025-11-17]

Practical info

How to get there

By metro

No direct metro connection to DWC as of May 2026; the Dubai Metro Route 2020 extension serves the Expo City area east of the airport.

By car

DWC is at Dubai South / Jebel Ali, accessed via Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road (E311) and the Expo Road.

From the airport

Approximately 50 km by road between DXB and DWC.

Regulatory status

The 9 November 2025 piloted flight to DWC was coordinated with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Dubai Air Navigation Services (DANS). No vertiport-specific regulatory framework for DWC has been published. Any future commercial operation would fall under the same UAE framework that governs the rest of the Dubai network, and within the scope of Joby's six-year exclusive RTA agreement covering air taxi services in Dubai.

Current progress

As of 1 May 2026, no Joby Aviation, RTA, Skyports Infrastructure, GCAA, WAM or Dubai Media Office release confirms a planned commercial vertiport at Al Maktoum International Airport. Joby's 17 November 2025 announcement identifies four network sites — DXB, Dubai Mall, Atlantis the Royal and the American University of Dubai — and uses DWC only in the context of the 9 November 2025 flight-test landing. This page will be updated when a primary-source confirmation appears.

Connected entities

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. [joby-ir-2024-02-11] Joby Aviation IR — Joby to Launch Air Taxi Service in UAE (11 Feb 2024) operator-ir · accessed 2026-05-01
2. [joby-ir-2025-11-17] Joby Aviation IR — Dubai Air Taxi Network Takes Flight (17 Nov 2025) operator-ir · accessed 2026-05-01
3. [rta-2025-11] RTA Dubai — Successful First Crewed Electric Aerial Taxi Flight regulatory · accessed 2026-05-01

Verification flags

• No primary source on the whitelist (Joby IR, jobyaviation.com, Skyports, RTA, GCAA, WAM, Dubai Media Office) confirms a planned commercial vertiport at Al Maktoum International Airport.
• DWC is referenced in primary sources only as the landing site of the 9 Nov 2025 piloted flight test from Margham.
• The 'planned' status in the original entity list cannot be supported by whitelisted primary sources; entity status changed to 'announced' (in non-primary media) and sparse_data set to true.
• References to a DWC vertiport in non-whitelisted media (e.g. Gulf News interview with Dubai Airports CEO) are not citable under project rules.
• GPS uses DWC airport landmark coordinates from OpenStreetMap. No vertiport-specific coordinates exist.