Dubai’s flying buttresses

It is hard to believe that an airport that averaged 712 flights a day last year could have come from such humble beginnings half a century ago.

But in 1959, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the then Ruler of Dubai, ordered a strip of compacted sand be established along Dubai Creek to serve aeroplanes in need of refuelling during the “Horseshoe line”. The route was operated by British Overseas Air Co (BOAC), a precursor to British Airways, on the route from southern Africa via the Gulf to Sydney.

The airport was opened a year later and in 1968, the customs department hired Sultan al Joker who has been there for the past 41 years and is its longest-serving official. Mr al Joker was 18 years old and newly married when he became an inspector.