An especially strong March and a record-setting day in April seem to foreshadow a positive summer for Dulles International Airport.
The airport recorded 1,103,722 passenger enplanements this past March — its second-best passenger total ever for that month, according to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Chryssa Westerlund.
“New service, new airlines and new options,” Westerlund said, describing the recent activity at Dulles to MWAA’s board of directors at a meeting on Wednesday (May 21).
Passenger enplanements in March 2025 were up 6.9% from a year before, even with Easter and spring-break periods occurring in April this year. It was the second highest total for March in the airport’s 63-year history.
For the first quarter of 2025, passenger totals at Dulles were up 7.8% over 2024 figures.
Dulles set a single-day passenger record on April 11, when more than 43,000 passengers were screened by the Transportation Security Administration. That was the Friday before the start of spring break for many D.C.-area school districts, including Fairfax County Public Schools, and also resulted in a single-day record at Reagan National Airport.
“We have very strong demand at our airports,” MWAA President and CEO Jack Potter said.
Sustained expansion of service by United Airlines is helping to fuel growth at Dulles, where it serves as the dominant carrier. For the spring season, the airline has added a mid-afternoon “mini-bank” of flights. Totaling nearly two dozen flights a day, the extra service will continue through June.
At Reagan National, March’s enplanements were down 10.2% year-over-year in March to 1.06 million. A number of factors, including not having the spring-break and Easter periods that month, contributed to the shortfall.
“We are expecting to see improvement in the second quarter,” Westerlund said.
New flights launch for summer travel season
With Memorial Day weekend kicking off summer travel, MWAA anticipates an active season for both of Northern Virginia’s airports, projecting over 20 million passengers combined from May through August.
According to MWAA, 11 million of those passengers are expected to use Dulles, which will have 46 airlines supporting more than 150 destinations — the most of any airport in the region.
For Memorial Day weekend, which it defines as May 22-28, United Airlines says it’s offering 20% more flights at Dulles than it did last year with 290 daily nonstop flights to more than 100 destinations. The top domestic destinations are expected to be Orlando, Boston and Seattle, while Frankfurt, Germany, Paris and Rome lead the way for international travelers.
The expanded service includes three new, nonstop flights to Dakar, Senegal; Nice, France; and Venice, Italy. The Nice and Venice flights launched yesterday (Thursday), along with a new domestic flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the return of seasonal service to Anchorage, Alaska. The Dakar flight begins today (Friday).
“It will be busy throughout [the summer], but for United this Thursday and Friday are expected to be the busiest travel days to kick off summer travel,” the airline said.
Among other airlines, Frontier will add three new routes at Dulles this summer, Allegiant is adding four, and WestJet has resumed seasonal routes to Canada, MWAA said in a press release.
The airport’s newest carrier, Contour Airlines, introduced itself at the beginning of May with service to Macon, Georgia and Plattsburgh, New York. It will launch two new destinations this summer.
Over at Reagan National Airport, MWAA says American Airlines will offer more departing flights this summer than it did last year. The airline’s top five nonstop flights from DCA will be to New York City, Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Chicago.
Travelers at both airports will find a range of new dining and shopping options to occupy them while waiting for their flight. New concessions at Dulles include Ben’s Chili Bowl, Rappahannock Oyster Bar and Gatsby restaurant, while DCA recently welcomed Solid State Books, a Tumi luggage store and a Half Moon Empanadas kiosk.
