Washington Dulles International Airport hasn’t had quite the year-over-year bump up as has its sibling Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in 2023, but regional aviation leader still have had reason to smile.
Dulles now has the largest number of airlines operating simultaneously in its 61-year history, said Paul Bobson, the Airports Authority’s vice president of airline-business development, speaking at the December meeting of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
While Reagan National has seen year-over-year passenger growth every month of 2023, the picture is slightly different 30 miles to the west.
At Washington Dulles, year-over-year passenger totals have been up four months (January and August-October) in 2023, but down in seven.
Those declines, however, largely have been minimal (1% to 3%) and come after a strong 2022.
Counting both National and Dulles, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority says 2023 brought nine new airlines and 18 new routes, adding up to 800,000 available additional annual seats.
Jack Potter, CEO of the Airports Authority, called 2023 “a year of historic success.”
Potter also gave an overview of the airport’s reaction to and recovery from COVID.
“We didn’t let the pandemic impact our progress,” he said. “Our team rose to the challenge – every person in our organization plays a role.”
International Service Strong at Dulles, But China Remains a Challenge: If leaders of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority are asking Santa for anything this holiday season, it might be to bring them a resumption of normalcy when it comes to travel to and from China.
While nearly all other international-service indicators are positive, service between Washington Dulles International Airport continues to lag, according to data presented Dec. 20 to the airports authority’s board of directors.
Seat capacity from Dulles to Chinese destinations through 2023 has run at 51 percent of 2019 figures. For all U.S. airports, the rate was better at 65 percent.
Even when excluding China, service between Dulles and Asia has a way to go: Available seats for 2023 are standing at 73 percent of 2019 levels, compared to 82 percent for all U.S. airports.
(Figures come from Innovata Airline Schedules, based on data as of Nov. 28.)
Air China resumed service from Dulles to Beijing on Nov. 21 with two-times-weekly service, down from daily service before the pandemic. Although nonstop from Beijing to Dulles, the return flight requires a technical stop in Los Angeles because Chinese airlines have agreed to stop flying through Russian airspace, which extends flight lengths.
Among other Asian destinations, service to Seoul is essentially back on track, while service to Tokyo has the same number of flights as before the pandemic, but airlines are using smaller aircraft.
India is an anticipated growth opportunity; Paul Bobson, the Airports Authority’s vice president of airline-business development, said all-time-high totals are expected in 2024.
Outside of the Asian market, international travel out of Dulles is looking good:
• Available seats to Latin America are at 152 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
• Seats to Africa are 137 percent.
• Seats to the Middle East are 120 percent.
• Seats to Europe are 115 percent.
In each case, Dulles is outperforming the overall U.S.-airport rebound to those regions, Bobson said.
Pending new arrivals at Dulles include Swiss, which will start service to Zurich in March, and Aeromexico, which debuts service to Mexico City in July. One target of the authority’s business-development staff is Lima, Peru, the largest unserved-by-nonstop-service market in Latin America.
“There’s a determination on the part of the team to keep moving forward,” said Walter Tejada, a Virginia appointee to the Airports Authority board.
International-service challenges include both the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, which are particularly challenging for service to the Mideast and Asia.
Canada has flights from both Dulles and its sibling, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. All told, available seats between the two airports and Canadian destinations are at 94 percent of pre-COVID levels.
“We’re looking forward to a lot of exciting growth,” authority board chairman WIlliam Sudow (Virginia) said. “The future is very bright.”
Thanksgiving Proved Biggie for Parking at Airports: Thanksgiving week certainly gobbled up the cash from those parking at Northern Virginia’s two commercial airports.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority reported $2.8 million in parking revenue for the week, with major increases from the pre-COVID year of 2019.
Parking revenue was up 65 percent at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and up 44 percent at Washington Dulles International Airport, said Chryssa Westerlund, the authority’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer. She detailed data at the Dec. 20 meeting of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors.
Figures for the Christmas period likely will be reported in late January.
Contract Signed for Services Related to Road Revamp at Reagan National: Plans for a major revamp of the roadway network at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport took a major step forward Dec. 20.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors approved a contract that, with extensions, could run seven years and total up to $42 million, for architectural and engineering services for what will be a decade-long project to modernize travel within the 861-acre campus.
The contract went to Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, which in the past has worked on projects at both National and Washington Dulles International airports.
At the Dec. 20 board meeting, airport leaders said they were excited to move forward on the project, which will be conducted in multiple phases over more than a decade.
The airport opened in 1941 and in the intervening 82 years has seen a series of additions both in terminals and ancillary spaces.
Snow-Removal Equipment Purchased for Reagan National: The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s (MWAA) board of directors on Dec. 20 took steps to make sure the impact Mother Nature’s winter wrath is as minimal as possible at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The body agreed to a contract worth $9.3 million for snow-removal equipment, including plows, large-scale mechanical brooms and blowers.
The authority will piggy-back on a 2022 contract of a Minnesota state-government agency, using the pricing agreed then for the equipment.
Reagan National’s compact footprint means there is less surface area to clear, but that same compactness, coupled with intersecting runways, can make for more complexity than at many airports, MWAA officials said.
Board Chair Lauds Comity, Collaboration in Valedictory Address: How is running the board of directors of a major transportation agency similar to keeping peace among kindergartners?
It all works better if everyone involved learns to play well with others.
And that has been the case with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board in recent years, according to William Sudow.
Sudow, an attorney who lives in McLean, will at the end of the year wrap up two and a half years serving at the authority’s board chair.
In valedictory remarks delivered Dec. 20, Sudow praised the collaborative spirit of the directors, who are appointed to represent the interests of Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia and the federal government.
“We all act with the same duty of care and loyalty. We all are focused on what is best for the Airports Authority,” Sudow said.
“We have our differences – but we’ve always resolved our difference in a professional manner,” he said. “We’ve attended to the needs of each airport. We’ve achieved one of the best passenger experiences.”
Sudow is not leaving the board of directors (his term runs through next October), but he is turning over the gavel to his vice chair, Thorn Pozen, a District of Columbia appointee.
At the board meeting, the incoming vice chair – Mark Uncapher of Maryland – praised Sudow’s ability to “look beyond the immediate challenges” and focus on strategic planning for the future.
While Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport continue to be owned by the federal government (which opened them in 1941 and 1962, respectively), management of the facilities has since 1987 been in the hands of the regional authority.
