Washington Dulles International Airport

Washington Dulles International Airport
IATA: IAD – ICAO: KIAD – FAA LID: IAD IAD Location of the Washington Dulles International Airport
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Serves		Washington Metropolitan Area
Location		Dulles, Virginia
Hub for		United Airlines
Elevation AMSL		313 ft / 95 m
Website		www.mwaa.com/dulles/
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
1L/19R	9,400	2,865	Concrete
1C/19C	11,500	3,505	Concrete
1R/19L	11,500	3,505	Concrete
12/30	10,500	3,200	Concrete
12R/30L	10,500	3,200	Planned
Source: Federal Aviation Administration[1]

Washington Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD, ICAO: KIAD, FAA LID: IAD) is a public airport located 26 miles (41.6 km) west of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Dulles, Virginia^[2] (Loudoun County and Fairfax County, Virginia, United States).^[1] It serves the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The airport is named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Dulles main terminal is a well-known landmark designed by Eero Saarinen.

Dulles airport occupies 11,830 acres (47.9 km²) of land,^[3] straddling the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia. It is located within two unincorporated communities, Chantilly and Dulles. The airport is west of Herndon and southwest of Sterling. Dulles airport is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.

Dulles is served by nearly a dozen U.S.-flagged carriers and nearly two dozen international carriers.^[4] Airlines serving Dulles provide non-stop service to over 80 domestic destinations and to over 40 international destinations. United Airlines maintains its East Coast hub at Dulles and handles 62% of passengers at the airport. JetBlue handles 6% of passengers, and American Airlines is the airport's third largest carrier and handles 4%.^[5] The airport has 143 gates and 14 hard stand locations from which passengers can board or disembark using the airport's trademark PlaneMate airfield vehicles.^[3] On a typical day, Dulles sees 1,000 to 1,200 flight operations.^[6]

History and background

Origins

At the end of World War II, growth in aviation and in the Washington metropolitan area led Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950, providing federal backing for a second airport. After preliminary proposals failed, including one to establish an international airport at what is now Burke Lake Park, the current site was selected by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. As a result of the selection, the former unincorporated community of Willard, which once stood in the airport's current footprint, was torn down.

Design and original construction

The civil engineering firm Ammann and Whitney was named lead contractor. The airport was dedicated by President John F. Kennedy on November 17, 1962. Its original name, Dulles International Airport, was changed in 1984 to Washington Dulles International Airport.^[7] The main terminal was designed in 1958 by famed Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and it is highly regarded for its graceful beauty, suggestive of flight. In the 1990s, the main terminal at Dulles was reconfigured to allow more space between the front of the building and the ticket counters. Additions at both ends of the main terminal more than doubled the structure's length. The original terminal at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei, Taiwan was modeled after the Saarinen terminal at Dulles.

The original design included a landscaped man-made lake to collect rainwater, a low-rise hotel, and a row of office buildings along the north side of the main parking lot. The design also included a two-level road in front of the terminal to separate arrival and departure traffic and a federally owned limited access highway connecting the terminal to the Capital Beltway (I-495) located approximately 17 miles (27 km) to the east. (Eventually, the highway system grew to include a parallel toll road to handle commuter traffic and an extension to connect to I-66). When the access road was designed, it featured a wide median strip to facilitate the construction of a passenger rail line, which is expected to be completed in 2016.

Notable operations and milestones

• The first flight at Dulles was an Eastern Air Lines Super Electra turboprop arriving from Newark International Airport in New Jersey.
• Dulles was initially considered to be a white elephant due to its limited flight destinations in the 1960s and its 26-mile (42 km) distance from downtown Washington, but the airport has steadily grown at the same time that Virginian suburbs have grown along the Dulles Technology Corridor and the Capital Beltway. Perimeter and slot restrictions placed on flights arriving at and departing from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have meant that most long-distance flights to the area must operate at Dulles or Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Maryland.
• The era of jumbo jets in international aviation began on January 15, 1970, when First Lady Pat Nixon christened a Pan Am Boeing 747 at Dulles in the presence of Pan Am chairman Najeeb Halaby. Rather than use a traditional champagne bottle christening, red, white, and blue water was sprayed on the aircraft. The first Boeing 747 flight on Pan Am from Dulles was to London Heathrow.
• Another milestone in aviation took place on May 24, 1976, when supersonic air travel commenced between Dulles and Europe. On that day, a British Airways Concorde flew in from London and an Air France Concorde arrived from Paris. The two sleek aircraft lined up at Dulles nose-to-nose for a photo opportunity.
• On June 13, 1983, the Space Shuttle Enterprise "landed" at Dulles atop a modified Boeing 747 after completing a European tour and prior to returning to Edwards AFB. In 1985, the Enterprise was placed in a storage hangar near Runway 12/30 pending the construction of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It has since been moved into the museum.
• During the 1980s, a United States Senate resolution to change the name of Washington Dulles to Washington Eisenhower was defeated.
• When the SR-71 was retired by the military in 1990, one was flown from its birthplace at United States Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California to Dulles, where it was placed in a special storage building pending the construction of the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, setting a coast-to-coast speed record at an average 2,124 mph (3,418 km/h). The entire trip took 64 minutes.^[8]
• The inaugural flight of the Boeing 777 in commercial service, a United Airlines flight from London Heathrow, landed at Dulles in 1995.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

• In December 2003, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum opened the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles. The museum annex houses an Air France Concorde, the Enola Gay B-29, the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Boeing 367-80, which was the prototype of the Boeing 707, and other famous aerospace artifacts, particularly those too large for the main building on the National Mall.
• On April 19, 2006, United Express began moving its operations from Concourse G to Concourse A. The latter was formerly used by the now-defunct Independence Air, which ceased operations on January 6, 2006. The transition was completed on May 1, 2006.^[9] Concourse G was later demolished.
• The launch of low-cost carrier Independence Air in 2004 propelled IAD from being the 24th busiest airport in the United States to 4th, and one of the top 30 busiest in the world. Independence Air ceased operations in January 2006. Southwest Airlines began service at Dulles in fall 2006. In 2006, Dulles ranked 29th in 2006 in traffic movements. In 2007, 24.7 million passengers passed through the airport.^[10]

Planned development

Main Terminal of Dulles International Airport

Main Terminal Station of Aerotrain

Since the 1980s, the original design, which had mobile lounges meet each plane, was not well-suited to Dulles' role as a hub airport. Instead, midfield concourses were added to allow passengers to walk between connecting flights without visiting the main terminal. Mobile lounges were still used for international flights and to transport passengers between the midfield concourses and the main terminal. An underground tunnel (consisting of a passenger walkway and moving sidewalks) which links the main terminal and concourse B was opened in 2004.^[11] The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) began a renovation program for the airport, to include a new security mezzanine to help relieve the heavily congested security lines that are familiar to passengers traveling through the airport.^[12]

A new train system, dubbed AeroTrain and developed by Mitsubishi, began in 2010 to transport passengers between the concourses and the main terminal.^[13] The system, which uses rubber tires and travels along a fixed underground guideway,^[13] is similar to the people mover systems at Singapore Changi Airport^[13], Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and Denver International Airport. The train is intended to replace the mobile lounges, which many passengers found crowded and congested. The initial phase includes the main terminal station, a permanent Concourse B station, a permanent midfield concourse station (with access to the current temporary C concourse via a tunnel with moving walkways), and a maintenance facility.^[13] Moving lounges continue to service the far end of the A Concourse as well as the D Concourse. Dulles has stated that the wait time for a train does not exceed two minutes, compared to the average 15-minute wait and travel time for mobile lounges.

Also, under the development plan, future phases would see the addition of several new midfield concourses and a new south terminal.^[14] A fourth runway (parallel to the existing runways 1 and 19 L&R) opened in 2008^[15], and development plans include a fifth runway to parallel the existing runway 12-30.^[16] An expansion of the B concourse, which is used by many low cost airlines as well as international arrivals, has been completed, and the Midfield Concourses C and D mainly house United Airlines, and will eventually be knocked down to make room for a more ergonomic building.

Terminals

The distinctive Mobile Lounge at Dulles

The main terminal houses ticketing, baggage claim, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Z gates, and other support facilities. From here, passengers can take the Aerotrain or mobile lounges to their concourses, "plane mates" directly to their airplanes, or take the passenger walkway to concourse B. The plane mates/mobile lounges are also used to transport passengers arriving on international flights directly to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection center located in the International Arrivals Building adjacent to the west side of the main terminal. The terminal cost US$108.3 million and has 143 gates total.^[3]

Dulles is one of the few remaining airports to use the "mobile lounges" (also known as "plane mates" or "people movers") for boarding and disembarkation from aircraft, to transfer passengers between the midfield concourses and to and from the main terminal building. They have all been given names based on the postal abbreviations of 50 states, e.g.: VA, MD, AK The MWAA plans to retire the mobile lounge system for inter-terminal passenger movements in favor of the underground people mover and pedestrian walkway system (now in service to concourse B). However, some plane mates will remain in use to disembark international passengers and carry them to the International Arrivals Building, as well as to convey passengers to and from aircraft on hard stand (i.e., those parked remotely on the apron without access to jet bridges).^[17][18]

Main terminal

Nonstop domestic and nonstop or direct international service from Dulles

The terminal ceiling is suspended in a catenary curve above the luggage check-in area.

The main terminal was recognized by the American Institute of Architects in 1966 for its design concept; its roof is a suspended catenary providing a wide enclosed area unimpeded by any columns. It houses ticketing, baggage claim, and information facilities, as well as the International Arrivals Building for passenger processing.

The main terminal was extended in 1996 to 1,240 feet (380 m) — Saarinen's original design length — which was slightly more than double its originally constructed length of 600 feet (180 m).^[19] In addition, an extension for international arrivals was added to the west of the main terminal in 1991. On September 22, 2009, an expansion of the international arrivals building opened which includes a 41,400 square feet (3,850 m²) arrival hall for customs and immigration processing. The new facility has the capacity to process 2,400 arriving passengers per hour.^[20]

In September 2009, a 121,700 square feet (11,310 m²) central Transportation Security Administration checkpoint was added on a new security mezzanine level of the main terminal. This checkpoint replaced previous checkpoints located behind the ticketing areas.^[21] A separate "Dulles Diamond" security checkpoint is available on the baggage claim level for expert adult travelers traveling alone who are security-ready.^[20][22] Both security checkpoints connect to the new AeroTrain, which links the main terminal with the A, B, and C concourses.

There are two sets of gates in the main terminal: waiting areas for airlines which lack permanent physical gates and therefore use plane mates to reach planes parked at hard-stand locations, and the "Z" Gates, which provide service for US Airways.

Midfield terminals

There are two midfield terminal buildings: One contains the A and B midfield concourses, the other the C and D midfield concourses. The C and D concourses, completed in 1983, were originally designed as a temporary home for United Airlines, which began hub operations at the airport in 1985. However, Due to the oil price hikes and the recession the C and D terminal Project has been put on hold till further notice. The A Concourse consists of a permanent ground level set of gates designed for small planes such as commuter jets and some former B concourse gates^[23]. The B Concourse is the first of the permanent elevated midfield concourses. It is connected to the main terminal by an underground walkway in addition to the Aerotrain.

Airlines and destinations

Airline lounges

• Aer Lingus: Gold Circle Lounge, B concourse.^[26]
• Air France: Departures Lounge, B Concourse.^[26]
• All Nippon Airways: ANA Lounge First, B Concourse.^[26]
• American Airlines: Admirals Club, B Concourse.^[26]
• British Airways: Terraces Lounge and First Class Lounge, B Concourse.^[26]
• Lufthansa: Senator Lounge and Business Lounge, B Concourse.^[26]
• United Airlines: Three Red Carpet Clubs, two in C Concourse, one in D Concourse.^[26]
• United Airlines: United International First Lounge, C Concourse.^[27]
• Virgin Atlantic: Clubhouse, A Concourse.

Transportation to and from the airport

Dulles is accessible via the Dulles Access Road/Dulles Greenway (State Route 267) and State Route 28. The Dulles Access Road is a toll-free limited access highway owned by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to facilitate car access to Dulles from the Washington Beltway and Interstate 66. After it opened, non-airport traffic between Washington and Reston became so heavy that a parallel set of toll lanes were added on the same right-of-way to accommodate non-airport traffic. However, the airport-only lanes are both less congested as well as toll-free. As of November 1, 2008, MWAA assumed responsibility from the Virginia Department of Transportation both for operating the Dulles Toll Road and for the construction of a rapid transit rail line down its median. Route 28, which runs north–south along the eastern edge of the airport, has been upgraded to a limited access highway, with the interchanges financed through a property tax surcharge on nearby business properties. The Dulles Toll Road has been extended to the west to Leesburg, Virginia as the Dulles Greenway.

Loudoun County Transit provides bus service which runs from the Dulles Town Center shopping center, to the airport, then to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Air and Space Museum.

As of 2009^[update], the only Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority service to Dulles is the "express" 5A Metrobus route. The 5A express bus makes two to three stops on its way from the airport to downtown Washington, depending on the time of day: stops include the Herndon–Monroe transfer station in Herndon and the Rosslyn Metro station in Arlington. The latter can be accessed by the Orange/Blue lines. The 950 Fairfax Connector bus brings passengers from Reston to the Herndon–Monroe transfer station, where they can switch to the 5A bus to the airport. The RIBS 2 Fairfax Connector bus also connects Reston passengers to the Herndon–Monroe transfer point. An alternative (and more expensive) way of reaching Dulles is the Washington Flyer Coach bus service that operates roughly every thirty minutes between the airport and the West Falls Church Metro station.^[28]

Passengers connecting to the Shenandoah Valley can use the Shenandoah Valley Commuter Bus, which connects to the Vienna and Rosslyn Metro station. Taxis and SuperShuttle ride sharing vans are also available.

Construction is now underway to connect the airport to Washington via the Silver Line of the Washington Metro by 2016.

Accidents and incidents

Control Tower view of IAD in 1961.

On December 1, 1974, a flight diverted to Dulles, TWA Flight 514, crashed into Mount Weather.^[29]

On June 13, 1979, the number 5 and 6 tires on an Air France Concorde blew out during a take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. Shrapnel thrown from the tires and rims damaged number 2 engine, punctured three fuel tanks, severed several hydraulic lines and electrical wires, in addition to tearing a large hole on the top of the wing, over the wheel well area.^[30]

On July 21, 1979, another blown tire incident involving an Air France Concorde occurred during take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. After that second incident the “French director general of civil aviation issued an air worthiness directive and Air France issued a Technical Information Update, each calling for revised procedures. These included required inspection of each wheel/tire for condition, pressure and temperature prior to each take-off. In addition, crews were advised that landing gear should not be raised when a wheel/tire problem is suspected.” ^[30]

On June 18, 1994, a Learjet 25 operated by Mexican carrier TAESA crashed in trees while approaching the airport from the south. Twelve people died.^[31] The passengers were planning to attend the 1994 FIFA World Cup soccer games being staged in Washington, D.C. The area where the aircraft crashed remains clear except for a small playground.

In 2001, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, left gate D26 at Dulles en route to Los Angeles, CA, but it was hijacked and it crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.^[32]

In fiction

Dulles has been the backdrop for many Washington based movies, starting shortly after the airport opened with the 1964 film Seven Days in May.

The 1983 comedy film D.C. Cab, starring Mr. T, Adam Baldwin and Gary Busey showed scenes outside of the main terminal at Dulles Airport.

The action film Die Hard 2: Die Harder is set primarily at Dulles airport. The plot of the film involves the takeover of the airport's tower and communication systems by terrorists. The film was not shot at Dulles; the stand-ins were Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the now-closed Stapleton International Airport in Denver. An often-noted inconsistency is the existence of Pacific Bell pay phones in the main terminal (the telephone company that served Dulles at the time was GTE and the nearest PacBell territory was thousands of miles away).

Part of the thriller The Package (starring Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones) took place at Dulles. However, the Dulles stand-in this time was Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

Dulles airport's terminal exterior

Portions of all three sequels to the disaster film Airport were filmed at Dulles: Airport 1975, with Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy; Airport '77, with Jack Lemmon, Christopher Lee and George Kennedy; and The Concorde ... Airport '79.

Dulles has also served as a stand-in for a New York City airport, in the 1999 comedy, Forces of Nature. While set in a New York airport, the main terminal is recognizable.

Dulles is featured in several episodes of the television series The X-Files.^[33]

The airport is also shown momentarily in the film Body of Lies.^[34] In the scene, Leonardo DiCaprio mentions he is in "Dubai International" on the phone, although one can clearly see the iconic curved roof and concave entry windows on the upper deck of the Dulles departures area in the background behind him.

See also

• Busiest airports in the United States by international passenger traffic
• List of thin shell structures
• Thin-shell structure

References

External links

• Official website
• openNav: IAD / KIAD charts
• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective 23 Sep 2010
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KIAD
  • ASN accident history for IAD
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KIAD
  • FAA current IAD delay information