Dubai International Airport (DXB) is the primary international airport serving Dubai, United Arab Emirates and is the world’s busiest airport by international passenger traffic. It is also the fifth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic, and the sixth-busiest cargo airport in world. In 2017, DXB handled 88 million passengers, 2.65 million tonnes of cargo and registered 409,493 aircraft movements. In July 2019 Dubai International airport installed the largest solar energy system in the region’s airports as part of Dubai’s goal to reduce 30 percent of the city energy consumption by 2030. – Wikipedia

I have had a one hour twenty minutes change here (my luggage didn’t make the change with me, but it was delivered to my hotel by the next morning) and I’ve spent over ten hours waiting for my flight. Tonight’s seven hour wait isn’t too bad. One trip I’m going to make it a twenty four hour or more stay and actually go into Dubai.

The airport is huge, it has its own internal train service, seemingly endless powered walkways and electric passenger carts for those unable to walk far.

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There’s all the usual duty free shops, places for coffee to a full formal dinner, lounges for many airlines and it’s all going 24 hours a day.

I’m having a decent coffee and a tasty almond croissant while I wait and play guess the nationality. The loud guy whistling to people to join him was English, the accent was the giveaway, and everyone could hear him. The woman in the wheelchair with a Rivers carry bag on her knee? Well, probably Australian. The service crews are Indian or from that region, the guys in all white are locals usually, and many of the sales staff at the perfumeries and high tech stands are Asian. And you don’t really notice the mix, as every is smooth and pleasant.

Flying is one of those climate changing actions that we really do need to restrict, but I can’t imagine countries like the UAE stopping the expansion of their airline activities.

If we had a clever government in Australia we’d be leading the way in finding low emission means of propulsion for aircraft, for shipping – both passenger and freight, and stopping our own coal and gas production. Sadly, I don’t think our politicians, or a fair percentage of our population, are up to such a challenge.