‘People Movers’ Out, More Parking In: Trump Announces $22.5B Washington Dulles Makeover

WASHINGTON — Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the main long-distance gateway to the nation’s capital, is set to receive a multi-billion-dollar makeover, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

Sitting behind a large model of the airport’s new proposed design, Trump unveiled the project at an event in the Oval Office with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter.

The sprawling renovation would preserve the iconic, concave sweeping roof of the airport’s main terminal but would update its interior to feature a main central walkway and rebuild its C and D concourses, Trump said.

“Right now, this is not a very good airport,” he said. “We’re going to make it a great airport.”

The plans were first reported by CBS News late Tuesday.

More parking

A key element of the project would be a multi-story parking garage across the street from the airport’s main terminal, Trump said, which will be connected to the terminal by glass bridges.

Trump said the project will also include new air traffic control towers, which he stressed as a crucial upgrade for the airport, given nearby accidents like the mid-air collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet near Reagan National Airport in January 2025.

Passengers board a “people mover” at Dulles International Airport on Aug. 23, 2024. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom) 

It would also eliminate some of the airport’s most recognizable — and controversial — features, including mobile lounges, often referred to as “people movers.” The large, raised bus-like vehicles transport passengers from the main terminal to the D concourse.

Duffy described the lounges as slow and resembling vehicles from “Star Wars.”

An expanded AeroTrain, the airport’s underground transportation system, will instead connect passengers to their gates, Duffy said.

“A lot of people, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you hate the way Dulles operates,” he said. “Everyone’s come together, and we’re building for America and building for the future.”

Trump seems to have taken a particular interest in the project, having personally reviewed many of the early proposals and offering edits to the plans, CBS reported. He suggested more and closer parking to the airport terminal, and gave suggestions on layout changes and the airport’s overall design.

He even had design firms create 3-D models of the airport and the various proposals for its renovation so he could better visualize it. Trump had the models brought to the White House several times for his review, according to the report.

A large investment

If approved, the project would mark one of the largest and most expensive airport renovations in the U.S. Its estimated $22.5 billion price tag is more than half the amount spent on all airport construction globally in 2024, according to the Airport Industry Review.

The plan would be topped only by Los Angeles International’s gargantuan, $30 billion capital improvement plan to modernize its terminals and upgrade infrastructure ahead of high-traffic events in the coming years, including the 2028 summer Olympics.

Trump said that “cost was no object” in determining the plans. But the project won’t actually use any federal dollars, Potter, the airport authority’s chief executive, said.

According to the White House, the renovation will be financed by contributions from airlines that operate out of Dulles and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees both Dulles and Reagan National Airport.

“This is going to be airport-generated dollars, airline contributions, which is phenomenal, meaning that we’re off to a fast start here,” Potter said.

Trump said that the project has largely already been financed, though it will “need some approvals from Congress, probably.” But it has largely been a bipartisan effort, he added.

Kirby said that the new design “works great for the airline.” The D concourse, which contains a major United hub, was originally designed as a temporary addition when it opened 45 years ago, he said. Now, it will be replaced with something meant to be permanent.

A conceptural rendering of Dulles International Airport’s south atrium as proposed in the renovation plan announced Wednesday. (Image: U.S. Department of Transportation)

“It’s something that all of us at United, but really all Americans, will be able to be proud of: Having an airport when people come into the capital that really represents what the United States of America stands for,” Kirby said.

According to Duffy, construction could begin as soon as spring 2027.

A new Washington

The Dulles renovation is the latest in a series of projects led by Trump to remake many of Washington’s most iconic landmarks.

He tore down the White House’s East Wing to make way for a controversial new ballroom. He also drained and painted the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which then faced algae blooms and peeling paint, and launched a legal battle against a former Olympic athlete over alleged vandalism.

After installing a new board of trustees in an effort to eradicate what he described as “woke programming,” he also affixed his name to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. That decision sparked a lengthy legal challenge and ultimately resulted in a judicial order to remove his name from the building’s exterior.

Early last year, Rep. Addison McDowell, R-N.C., introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives to rename the Virginia airport to the “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” That effort did not proceed, but Palm Beach’s airport, which the president routinely flies into on his way to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, was recently similarly renamed in his honor.

Of all the construction projects in Washington, Trump said the Dulles renovation is an important one.

“This is the airport,” he said. “This is sort of the lifeblood of a city or a capital.”

by Sam Gauntt, Virginia Mercury

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