If you are looking up the Emirates terminal Dubai uses, the answer is short: Terminal 3. Emirates says all of its flights arrive and depart from Emirates Terminal 3 at Dubai International (Emirates, "Emirates Terminal 3," captured 2026-09-27). The part that takes planning is inside the building. Terminal 3 has three concourses, A, B and C, and moving between them is not a quick stroll. Below: each concourse, what the aircraft type can tell you, and how much time Emirates says to allow.
The short version
Terminal 3 is split into three gate areas. Dubai Airports describes them as A Gates, B Gates and C Gates, and says they are primarily used by Emirates, flydubai, United and Air Canada (Dubai Airports, "Transfers," captured 2026-09-27).
| Concourse | What it is | A380-capable gates | How you get there from B |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Separate building, opened 2 January 2013 | 18 of its 20 air-bridge gates | Airport train |
| B | The main Emirates concourse, 32 gates | 5 | You are already there |
| C | The older Sheikh Rashid building, now part of T3 | 2 | Walk |
Gate and A380 counts come from Wikipedia's articles on Terminal 3 and on the airport (both captured 2026-09-27). Treat them as a guide to the building's shape rather than a count to plan around, because gate numbering changes over time.
Concourse A: the A380 building behind a train ride
Concourse A was built with the Airbus A380 in mind. Wikipedia's Terminal 3 article describes it as 924 metres (0.92 km) long, with 20 air-bridge gates, 18 of them able to handle an A380, spread across 11 floors (captured 2026-09-27). It opened on 2 January 2013, according to Wikipedia's main Dubai International article (captured 2026-09-27).
The practical point is that A is a separate building. It connects to the public levels of Terminal 3 by an automated people mover, and Dubai Airports says that in Terminal 3 you "take a short ride on the airport train to A Gates" (Dubai Airports, "Transfers," captured 2026-09-27). Emirates also runs a bus between Concourse A and Concourse C for passengers connecting between the two (Emirates, "Transferring between terminals," captured 2026-09-27).
If your boarding pass says A, build the train ride into your plan before you settle anywhere else in the terminal.
Concourse B: the long middle
Concourse B is the main Emirates concourse, and Wikipedia describes it as dedicated exclusively to Emirates. The same article gives it 32 gates, B1 to B32, of which 26 have air bridges, and five gates that can handle an A380 (Wikipedia, "Dubai International Terminal 3," captured 2026-09-27). It is 945 metres (0.95 km) long by the same source, just under a kilometre.
That length is the thing to respect. A gate near one end of B is a genuine walk from a gate near the other.
Concourse C: the older building, a walk from B
Concourse C is the oldest of the three: Wikipedia's main airport article says it opened in 2000. The Terminal 3 article describes it as the former Sheikh Rashid Terminal, now run as part of Terminal 3, linked to the rest of the building by passenger walkways at the control tower structure (captured 2026-09-27). The main airport article lists two A380-capable gates at C.
Dubai Airports says travellers "can walk between B Gates and C Gates" (captured 2026-09-27). No train is involved. If you are moving from A to C, the Emirates bus mentioned above is the route the airline describes.
Aircraft type is a hint, not a gate assignment
Emirates flies three main types: the Airbus A380, the Airbus A350 and the Boeing 777 family (Emirates, "Our fleet," captured 2026-09-27). You can often see the aircraft type on your booking or on the airline's flight page, and it is tempting to read a concourse from it.
The honest way to use it:
- A380 on your booking. Concourse A holds most of the A380-capable gates (18 by the Terminal 3 article), B has five and C has two. An A380 departure therefore has more gate options in A than anywhere else, but it is not a rule, and B handles A380s too.
- 777 or A350 on your booking. These aircraft do not need one of the A380-capable gates, so the A380 counts tell you little about where they will board.
- The aircraft can change. Emirates says operational requirements may cause last-minute changes to the aircraft used on scheduled flights (Emirates, "Our fleet," captured 2026-09-27). A type swap can move a flight to a different gate.
The gate itself is set by the airline and the airport. The aircraft type narrows your guess; the boarding pass and the airport screens settle it.
Walk time: budget the airline's number, not the map's
Maps of Terminal 3 make the concourses look close together. Emirates' own guidance is more useful: "It takes approximately 30 minutes to travel between each concourse," by train, bus or on foot depending on which two you are moving between (Emirates, "Transferring between terminals," captured 2026-09-27).
Emirates also sets deadlines at the gate. On the same page, it says to reach your gate no later than 60 minutes before departure in Economy or Premium Economy, and no later than 45 minutes before departure in First or Business (captured 2026-09-27). Put those two numbers together and a connection between concourses needs roughly half an hour of movement, finishing up to an hour before the scheduled departure, plus whatever time the arriving aircraft takes to reach its stand.
One more variable: Emirates notes that some of its flights land away from the terminal building (captured 2026-09-27). In that case there is a transfer from the aircraft to the building before the walk inside the terminal even begins.
A simple planning order for a connection or a departure:
- Find the concourse letter on your boarding pass or connection information.
- If it is a different letter from where you are, allow Emirates' 30 minutes for the move.
- Work back from the gate deadline for your cabin, not from the departure time.
- At B, check which end of the concourse your gate sits at before sitting down for a meal.
Where to find your actual gate
The gate itself comes from the operating airline and the airport. Your boarding pass, the Emirates app and the flight information screens inside Terminal 3 are where it appears, and where a gate change will be shown. For airport codes, location and the country context, our Dubai International page is a directory reference, alongside the Emirates airline page and the UAE airports directory.
If you are connecting to another airline rather than another Emirates flight, Emirates says your onward flight may leave from Terminal 1 or Terminal 2, reached by shuttle bus from its connections desks (captured 2026-09-27). Check the terminal for that second flight separately.
How TrackMyWings helps
TrackMyWings™ is a live flight-tracking platform in development. A private Android beta has been running on the Play internal testing track since 2026-08-24, and public launch has no fixed date. Gate and status alerts are among its planned features, so that a gate change on a watched flight will reach the traveller and the people waiting for them. Until then, the directory pages for DXB and Emirates are a starting point for the airport and the airline.
Questions people ask
Which terminal does Emirates use at Dubai International? Terminal 3. Emirates says all of its flights arrive and depart from Emirates Terminal 3.
How do I get from Concourse B to Concourse A? By the airport train. Dubai Airports describes it as a short ride to A Gates. Emirates says to allow about 30 minutes to move between concourses.
Can I walk from B Gates to C Gates? Yes. Dubai Airports says travellers can walk between B and C. There is no train on that link.
Does an A380 flight always leave from Concourse A? No. Concourse A has most of the A380-capable gates, but Concourse B and Concourse C have some too, and Emirates says the aircraft on a scheduled flight can change at the last minute. The boarding pass and the airport screens are the answer.
Sources
- Emirates, "Emirates Terminal 3," https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/dubai-international-airport/emirates-terminal-3/, captured 2026-09-27
- Emirates, "Transferring between terminals," https://www.emirates.com/us/english/before-you-fly/dubai-international-airport/transferring-between-terminals/, captured 2026-09-27
- Emirates, "Our fleet," https://www.emirates.com/us/english/experience/our-fleet/, captured 2026-09-27
- Dubai Airports, "Transfers," https://dubaiairports.ae/information/transfers, captured 2026-09-27
- Wikipedia, "Dubai International Terminal 3," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_International_Terminal_3, captured 2026-09-27
- Wikipedia, "Dubai International Airport," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_International_Airport, captured 2026-09-27
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