Dubai Terminal 3

Hi all, This post has been due for quite long time. I have visited Dubai Airport, Terminal 3 in transfer to my flight to Mumbai in Dec 2008. It had opened very recently and was a very pleasant experience. I know there is nothing to crib about the airport. It was a very good experience.

The walk from the gate to the security check was long but very interesting as there was not many flights landing at that time and the terminal was empty at that particular moment. There was a little confusion for the way out as there was signage but I was more interested in the architecture and spatial arrangement.

The first thing to notice was the murals on glass, some interesting motifs, and all famous landmarks told me that I am in Dubai and nowhere else!!. The toilet was quite a long walk away or I was not able to spot the nearest. The toilet was very clean, infact the whole airport was very clean.

The next thing I was impressed by was the lighting on the ceiling near the entrance, it gave me a sense of movement. The white color filled the space and made it looked like it was floating.

We only had one inconvenience and that was my wife had to even remove the visible jewellery to pass through the security and metal detector, which I think is nuisance. The curved facade was in glass was covering the queue of security and I am sure it would be fun to stand there in day time. It was good to see a glass elevator, but that is kind of becoming norm at all new airports and I think we need to design something more interesting or different perhaps!!

The shopping experience was good but the prices were no different from high street shops in UK. The vairety and avaibility was average. I would have expected something more local. I am doubtful about the price of the gold too, I don't think it was cheap.


The best surprise was the lanscaped atruim at the end of shopping street. It will definitely give the airport a very distinct flavour and relaxed atmosphere, we used that space to relax on our way back when we had to wait for 6 hours for our connecting flight.