Trump unveils $22B plan to remake Washington Dulles airport

WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump unveiled a $22 billion plan on Wednesday to rebuild Washington Dulles airport by replacing concourses and adding a large parking garage while preserving the landmark main terminal.

The announcement is the latest in a series of major projects he has announced in and around the U.S. capital.

“It’s considered one of the worst airports anywhere in the world, we’re going to make it maybe the best with some hard work,” Trump said, arguing it was time “for a major and long overdue renovation and reconstruction of Washington’s really horribly-thought of Dulles.”

Trump, who was joined by United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at the White House, has been pushing for an overhaul of the airport that is the main international gateway for the national capital region. The plan includes 5 million square feet of new or renovated airport space. Duffy in May confirmed the federal government planned a $22 billion overhaul of Dulles.

The plan, one of the largest U.S. airport overhauls ever proposed, will be funded through municipal bonds but raises questions about what it will mean for the cost of flights. The airport authority had already approved a separate $7 billion capital plan for Dulles.

Despite the criticism, Dulles was the fastest-growing large U.S. airport last year by passenger traffic. The airport had a record year in 2025, handling 29 million total passengers, up 6.4%. This fall, it ⁠will ​get a new 435,000-square-foot (40,412-square-meter), 14-gate concourse serving United customers.

Critics say Dulles needs modernization and gripe about slow vehicles that transport passengers across the tarmac, which Duffy said will be phased out as part of the overhaul.

The U.S. Department of Transportation in December criticized a “jet fuel smell in the concourses” and the “paltry” number of gates in ​the main terminal.

The Dulles project is the latest massive reconstruction project in the Washington area Trump is pushing for. Dulles is about 25 miles (40 km) from the U.S. capital and opened in 1962.

Finnish ​architect Eero Saarinen designed the airport’s terminal building, a distinctive structure with a sloping roof that sweeps up toward ​the sky on opposite sides. That building will remain, Trump said.

United is the largest carrier at Dulles, handling about 70% of the traffic. Trump held a meeting on February 25 on the airport’s future that included Kirby, where the CEO pitched the idea of a merger with American Airlines <AAL.O>. Kirby said in April that he was dropping his pursuit of American.

The airport ​is operated by ⁠the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority under a 50-year lease approved by Congress.

The Airports Authority, working with airlines serving Dulles, will finance the new concourses and terminal facilities through municipal bonds while other parts of the new development could include public-private partnership investments.

Trump said United would partly fund the project. The airline did not immediately respond to a question on the funding.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Louise Heavens, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)