U.S. President Donald Trump and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby are unveiling a $22 billion overhaul plan to completely remake Washington Dulles International Airport.
Trump has been pushing for a massive rebuilding of the airport that is the main international gateway for the national capital region and the plan is expected to include four new concourses.
United is the largest carrier at Dulles handling about 70% of the traffic. On February 25, Trump held a meeting on the airport’s future that included Kirby, where the CEO pitched the idea of a merger with American Airlines.
In December, Trump said he has a new design in mind for Dulles “because it’s not a good airport. It should be a great airport… They have a great building and a bad airport.”
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.
The sweeping modernization project aims to fix structural bottlenecks and layout issues at the capital’s primary global gateway—which the administration has frequently criticized as outdated.
The plan also permanently retires Dulles’s notorious, decades-old mobile lounges (in use since 1962), replacing them with an expanded, underground U-shaped AeroTrain system and extensive moving walkways.
As reported Long-standing temporary structures which have stood for over 40 years, will be redeveloped into modern linear concourses.
It will get a new 435,000-square-foot (40,412-square-meter), 14-gate concourse serving United customers.
In 2025, the airport authority approved a master capital plan to spend at least $7 billion overhauling Dulles in coming years.
As reported by CBS news, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is expected to issue tax-free bonds to finance the roughly $22.5 billion project.
Major stakeholder United Airlines—which handles roughly two-thirds of the airport’s traffic will contract the construction and pay back the financing through airport operations.
Notably, the Washington Dulles International Airport is about 25 miles (40 km) from the U.S. capital, opened in 1962 and had a record year in 2025, handling 29 million total passengers, up 6.4%.
