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Dubai Intl Approach Control

OMDB / DXB — United Arab Emirates

Dubai Intl (OMDB / DXB) is one of the real-world terminal areas you can control in the free ATC Radar Simulator. Its approach (APP) airspace — centred near 25°15.2'N 55°21.9'E in United Arab Emirates — is modelled with real runways, radio navaids and instrument procedures. As the approach controller you sequence arriving traffic onto the ILS approach, launch departures on their standard instrument departures, and keep every flight safely separated on the radar.

Dubai International is one of the world’s busiest airports for international traffic and the global hub of Emirates, so its arrival stream is dominated by heavy, long-haul widebodies. Two close parallel runways, relentless round-the-clock demand and searing desert heat make efficient spacing essential — there is rarely a quiet moment on the Dubai radar.

Operationally, Dubai runs its two close parallels in segregated mode — typically one runway swallowing an endless stream of arrivals while the other launches the departure bank — because the pair sit too close together for independent mixed operations. Traffic arrives in hub waves timed around Emirates’ long-haul banks, with a heavy freighter push through the night, and the surrounding airspace is squeezed by Sharjah and Al Maktoum traffic only a few miles away.

Runways

Runways 12L, 30R, 12R, 30L are equipped with an ILS (Instrument Landing System) — a localizer for lateral guidance and a glideslope for the descent path down to the threshold. In the simulator you turn arrivals onto the extended centreline, clear them for the approach, and watch them capture the localizer and glideslope automatically.

Radio navaids

VOR/DME: DXB

Standard arrivals (STARs)

Standard departures (SIDs)

The terminal airspace

• Transition level: FL60 — below it aircraft fly altitudes on the local QNH; at or above it they fly standard flight levels.
• Upper limit: FL130 — overflights cross the sector below this level.
• The terminal control area (TMA) extends roughly 60 NM around the field.
• Entry / exit fixes on the boundary: DXBDATOBIMPEDLORIDPUVALVUTEBANVIXDAVMOEMERUIVUROKUTLIMIROTNABIXRIDAP

How to control Dubai Intl in the simulator

On the scope, Dubai is a wake-turbulence exercise: nearly everything is Heavy or Super, so the final needs generous, disciplined gaps — and with the TMA hemmed in by neighbouring fields, there is little room to swing wide downwind. Keep the arrival runway fed without starving the departure side and the session flows; let one go-around happen and the whole bank compresses.

Pick Dubai Intl when you start a session, then double-click an aircraft's data block to assume it. Give it radar headings, climb or descend it to a level and control its speed to build an orderly stream toward the runway. Turn arrivals onto final, clear them for the ILS, and keep at least 3 NM and 1,000 ft between aircraft — the short-term conflict alert (STCA) warns you before a loss of separation. New to it? Read the guide to approach radar control and the ATC glossary first.