By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Even as a major expansion project is already under construction, President Donald Trump wants to rebuild Washington Dulles International Airport.
Trump made the comments during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
“We’re also going to rebuild Dulles airport because it’s not a good airport,” Trump said. “It should be a great airport. It’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport. It was incorrectly designed with a good building.”
He continued, “But we’re going to turn that around, and we’re going to make Dulles airport … We’re going to make that into something really spectacular.”
The remarks put new attention on a multiyear construction project already underway.
Work began in November 2023 on Concourse E, a new 435,000-square foot facility that will add gate capacity and create a direct connection to the AeroTrain system, according to a fact sheet. The building is designed to handle more passengers and ease congestion in some of the airport’s busiest areas.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says the concourse is expected to open in 2026 and is part of a broader effort to modernize as travel through Dulles continues to grow.
It is not yet clear how Trump’s proposal would fit into the airport’s recently updated master plan, which the airport authority board approved in July. The plan outlines major development priorities for the next two decades, and construction on Concourse E continues as one of the first projects in that long-term program.
Dulles in 2024 had a record 27.25 million passengers. The 60,000 daily average traveled to 139 destinations worldwide. Reagan National is the other major airport and had 26.29 million passengers routed to 97 destinations a year ago.