Washington Dulles International Airport in 2023 recorded the most passengers for any September in its 60-plus-year history, and has now surpassed pre-COVID enplanements in both the international and domestic sides of operations.
The airport tallied just over 1.09 million total passenger departures this September, up a whopping 17.4 percent from a year before and 9.2 percent higher than September 2019, the last year before the pandemic roared in.
“We truly are back to normal operations,” said Chryssa Westerlund, executive vice president and chief revenue officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, during a Nov. 15 briefing to authority board members.
The 2023 figure also is 2.5 percent higher than the previous record September. That was set in 2005, during a period when upstart Independence Air was challenging long-dominant United Airlines at Dulles.
(By November of that year, Independence Air had filed for bankruptcy protection, and two months later ceased operations.)
Preliminary October numbers “also look great,” Westerlund said.
International travel had returned to pre-pandemic levels in the spring, but domestic travel still had catching up to do until September. Authority officials expect Dulles to slightly outpace passenger counts at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for the remainder of the year.
Westerlund predicted it could take several years to get back to pre-pandemic levels when it comes to Asia service, as that region saw some of the most draconian lockdowns in the wake of COVID.
“We still have a way to go,” she said.
But things are moving in the right direction. Air China on Nov. 21 is set to resume, on a reduced basis, service between Dulles and Beijing. With the return, all cities to Asia served pre-pandemic through Dulles will again be served, if not necessarily by the same number of carriers or with the same number of flights.
Despite headwinds that include an unsettled economy and a number of major regional wars being fought across the globe, airport officials say that – outside of normal cyclical ebbs and flows – they are not seeing an indication of a weakening international-travel demand.
Authority board chair William Sudow asked authority president/CEO Jack Potter and his staff to keep eyeballs on traffic to and from Asia, as well as on traffic from Dulles to and from Latin America, which has shown significant growth (and growth potential) in the post-COVID environment.
To accommodate expected future growth, the Airports Authority is gearing up for a new 14-gate extension to a mid-field concourse at Dulles. “We hope to break ground in the very near future,” Potter said.
For September, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport posted 1.02 million enplanements. While down slightly from a year ago, it is up 7.7 percent from September 2019.
“The future is bright,” Potter said.
Cost-Per-Enplanement Slated to Dip at Airports: The 2024 budget of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) is expected to result in the authority’s lowest cost-per-enplanement at Washington Dulles International Airport since 2008 and the lowest at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport since 1997.
The package was supported at the committee level on Nov. 15 and is slated for consideration by the body’s board of directors in December. The staff proposal calls for a 2024 budget of $810.6 million, up from $754.7 million budgeted this year, addressing both airport operations and debt service.
That package includes $199.4 million for operation of Dulles, $112.2 million for operations at National, $128 million for consolidated operations and $68 million for public safety. The number of employees will remain essentially unchanged at 1,810.
Under the proposal, the anticipated cost per enplanement – a common budget metric for analyzing and comparing costs of agencies that operate airports – will decline from $9.90 in 2023 to $9.05 in 2024 at National and from $15.98 to $13.98 at Dulles.
The calculations anticipate a record 25.5 million enplaned passengers in the coming year.
Excepting 2020 and 2021 – when pandemic conditions sent passenger counts plummeting – the highest per-enplanement cost was recorded in 2010 at Reagan National ($13.52) and 2014 at Dulles ($26.56).
Being able to cut the per-enplanement cost is “great news – [it] puts us in a great competitive position,” authority CEO Jack Potter said at the Nov. 15 meeting.
Among potential budget challenges for 2024: Geopolitical unrest; rising oil prices; declining consumer confidence and discretionary income. In addition, federal COVID-relief funding is expected to run out during the year.
In an effort to offset down sides, the airports authority will press for increases in non-airline revenue (parking and concessions) and real-estate development as well as passenger growth at Dulles.
The budget on the airport side is distinct from a separate budget that supports the authority’s operation of the Dulles Toll Road. The good news on that front: Given a return to normal(ish) driver counts coupled with a rate hike, revenue on the Toll Road currently is running about 106 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Airports Authority’s Board Sets Leadership for 2024: After about two and a half years at the helm of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s board of directors, it’s almost time for McLean’s William Sudow to holster his gavel.
The body on Nov. 15 elected Thorn Pozen, a District of Columbia appointee, as chair and Mark Uncapher, a member from Maryland, as vice chair for the coming year.
“This is indeed a great honor,” said Pozen, who has served as vice chair under Sudow and joked that he had “a 10-point plan and speech prepared” but opted against delivering it.
Pozen said the coming year would involve “some challenging prospects . . . [and] great opportunities” for the body that oversees Washington Dulles International Airport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Dulles Toll Road, and served as lead contractor for the Metro system’s Silver Line.
The handover will take place Jan. 1, but Pozen noted that “some heavy lifts” will remain during the last months of Sudow’s chairmanship.
(Sudow, Pozen and Uncapher may represent different jurisdictions, but they share a profession – all three are attorneys. While rotating off as chair, Sudow remains a board member.)
Created in the 1980s to assume operational control of Washington’s two major airports from the federal government, the authority’s board of directors has seven representatives from Virginia, with the District of Columbia four and the Maryland and federal governments three each. Members serve six-year terms.
While noting it had not historically always been the case, Uncapher said that the MWAA board had over the years evolved into “a very collegial board, very cooperative board.”
Sudow is expected to deliver a valedictory at the board’s December meeting, but noted on Nov. 15 that the current body is “very focused” on its mission. And given the experience level of Pozen and Uncapher, “there’s not going to be a learning curve” among the leadership ranks, Airports Authority CEO Jack Potter said.
Also at the Nov. 15, meeting, Monica Hargrove was reappointed secretary to the board of directors. Hargrove joined the authority in 2013 as deputy general counsel; in her current position, she carries out official board duties, manages the board office’s day-to-day operations and serves as liaison between the board and top leadership.
