Trump says he plans to overhaul Dulles airport outside Washington

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration intends to overhaul federally owned Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the primary international airport for the U.S. capital area, calling it a bad facility.

The airport, which is located about 25 miles (40 km) from the U.S. capital and opened in 1962, serves approximately 27 million passengers annually. Trump's motorcade made an unscheduled drive through the airport property in October to assess future projects.

"We're also going to rebuild Dulles airport because it's not a good airport. It should be a great airport. It's not a good airport at all," Trump said on Tuesday during a cabinet meeting at the White House. "They have a great building and a bad airport."


The Republican president said he has a new design for Dulles. 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. It is considered a leading example of Mid-Century Modern architecture.

The U.S. Transportation Department said in a notice it was seeking proposals to completely overhaul Dulles, including potentially tearing down the historic main terminal.

It criticized the "jet fuel smell in the concourses" and the "paltry" number of gates in the main terminal, adding Dulles "is no longer an airport suitable and grand enough for the capital of the United States."

The airport, a major United Airlines hub, is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority under a 50-year lease approved by Congress.

United said it looked forward to working with Trump and USDOT "to continue to enhance the airport's infrastructure and operations in a meaningful and cost-effective way."

The airport authority said on Tuesday it appreciates the administration's interest in making improvements and working collaboratively.

"We want to build on the existing $7 billion capital plan for Dulles, which is underway with a new concourse under construction and expected to open next fall," the authority said in a statement.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress by some Republicans to rename Dulles after Trump. The airport is currently named after John Foster Dulles, who served as U.S. secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also wants proposals to replace the shuttle vehicles, called "mobile lounges," that transport passengers between the terminal and planes. Two separate collisions in November involving the mobile lounges drew attention to the system.

The airport currently has 130 gates. In July, the airport authority approved a master plan to expand the facility to handle 38 million annual passengers in 2030 and 45 million annual passengers and 154 gates by 2045. The plan envisions expanding it to eventually to serve 90 million annual passengers with 218 gates.