President Donald Trump has announced plans to “rebuild” Washington Dulles Airport and the Department of Transportation has asked for proposals for “completely new terminals and concourses.” During Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Trump said the airport was “bad” and he has ideas to make it a lot better. “We have a design that is amazing for Dulles,” Trump said. “It was a badly designed airport. We’re going to make it as good as there is in the country.” The Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority says the administration’s improvements will be on top of a planned $7 billion upgrade and there’s a new a new 14-gate concourse under construction that will be finished next year.
Something everyone seems to agree on is to improve the system of “mobile lounges” that move passengers from the main terminal to the outlying concourses. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said ideas are being solicited but the “people movers,” which hold more than 100 people, appear to be a fixture at the airport. The airport authority says it plans to keep them operating for at least another 15 years at a cost of $160 million. One of them crashed earlier this month sending 18 people to the hospital. Duffy said the airport leaves a bad impression on the many important travelers who flow through every day. “Tourists, world leaders, and CEOs from around the world should not be forced to travel through an inefficient airport when they visit D.C.,” Duffy said.
The original idea was for the “mobile lounges” to carry pax from the main terminal direct to the aircraft door, that’s why they’re so tall. Given the result of a “crash” impact with a plane, it’s a rare after hours delayed arrival that will offload to them directly as originally intended.
When you just add them to the stream from terminal to terminal it becomes another annoying mode change (and wait), though as an IAD “local” my wife is a fan for nostalgia’s sake.
I’m less inclined to cheer on years of airport “improvement”…after traveling with elders, where every airport could use help is in the movement of mobility impaired pax from airport arrival, bags/check-in, terminal/TSA/gate and loading (and the reverse process)…the existing process runs them over and relies on the empathy of good hearted employees along the way.
I wasn’t aware we had a budget surplus and had already taken care of the basic needs. If so, then visitors and important people should not be forced to use such a dated facility.
The promised comms upgrade will tax an already-stretched DOT.
In July the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of directors approved for submission to the FAA a new IAD Master Plan to provide a long-term framework for the airport’s development. One wonders how Trump’s announced plan modifies this update, other than renaming the airport after himself and applying gold paint to everything in sight.
Authorities can be as bad as “his Trumpness” for delusions of grandeur, when they ran Metro out to IAD, one of the board was pushing for full underground Metro so as to not diminish the architectural purity of the Saarinen terminal…at cost of several $B of other people’s money (aka our $). Robert Moses’ ghost still walks among us.
Well, if Robert Moses had truly had his thought process followed, the Dulles highway wouldn’t have been built with room in the median for public transit expansion.
An aside from this… when was the last his Trumpness actually was on commercial aviation?
A-Men, about time DIA moved from the stagecoach days!