Dubai – How they are made cities and society of the future? An example is less far-fetched than one might imagine and it is futuristic but also dystopian. AND Dubai, the capital of one of the United Arab Emirateswhich lives projected into the future by huge investments in infrastructure and technology, but at the same time brings with it all possible contradictions from amplifying absolute performance through technology in a non-democratic context.
A few references are enough to understand the uniqueness of Dubai. A few weeks ago, Emirates, the airline of Dubai, signed an order for 15 Airbus A350-900s during the Air Show held in the citybringing the total purchases to 65 aircraft in total value 6 billion dollars. It is just the latest piece of one of the key strategies for Dubai’s future.
Emirates’ strategic role
The airline owned by the Sultan has invested hundreds of billions in air travel. Emirates is the company that uses by far the most Airbus A380sthe world’s largest airliner, and is now planning the fleet needed to keep its Dubai supercenter at the center of global aviation beyond 2030, when the A380 retires.
The airline is the calling card of the country, but it has its lights and shadows: Emirates employs 105 thousand people, 39% white and 41% female. There is one in the United Arab Emirates substantial discrimination against womenas Human Rights Watch also reports, and the airline sector is no exception, so much so that women who work as flight attendants they sign a contract that forbids them from marrying and live in reserved condominiums where men cannot access, despite statements from Dubai that the role of women is increasingly important.
Occupation as a center
Dubai is one of 12 airports in the world capable of flying directly to all continents of the planet. But he is not alone a gigantic hub through which 98 million people will pass in 2023 (+11% compared to 2022, the second busiest airport in the world for passengers), but also the gateway to a city that has completely changed its face in the last thirty years, growing faster than any other capital on the planet and investing more heavily in the future and to become what according to national geography and “the most unlikely green city on the planet“.
Dubai is also known to be a logistics hub, although the sheer scale of the business is not always known. Its port owned by DP World manages 100 million containers transported annually by approximately 80 thousand ships and 82 marine terminals. It accounts for more than 10% of global ocean freight, invoices more than $9 billion a year and requires constant investment in technology to create logistics hubs.