[JYO] Dulles Airport Moves ahead with expansion but puts some Improvements on hold

I also heard that the new control tower will be the tallest on the East 
Coast...

Ed

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Dulles Plans to Put Some Improvements on Hold
By Katherine Shaver

Dulles International Airport officials moved yesterday to sharply cut a $4.1 
billion construction program at the busy airport, citing uncertainty over the 
future growth of air travel in the wake of Sept. 11.

On indefinite hold is a replacement for the cramped and stuffy 15-year-old 
midfield terminal, known as Concourse C-D, and a new underground people mover 
for international arrivals. With air travel expected to grow at a slower pace 
after last year's terrorist attacks, managers at Dulles want to delay about 
$1.5 billion in improvements.

Still on track, however, are $2.6 billion worth of projects designed to make 
traveling easier, including the subway train linking the existing concourses 
with the main terminal, said James A. Wilding, president of the Metropolitan 
Washington Airports Authority, which operates Dulles as well as Reagan 
National Airport. The rail line would replace the 40-year-old cumbersome and 
crowded mobile lounges, which Dulles passengers have complained about for 
years.

Wilding said the slowdown also would not affect other projects designed to 
increase capacity at Dulles. The airport eventually could serve as many as 55 
million passengers a year -- more than double the 19 million who now use it 
annually. Construction remains on schedule for a fourth runway, thousands of 
parking spaces, new gates, better roadways and a new air traffic control 
tower, Wilding said.

In addition to those projects, he said, the authority must spend $175.5 
million to rebuild a decaying 40-year-old runway and expand terminal 
basements to hold the large explosives-detection machines that meet new 
federal security requirements.

"The grand plan is very much alive in our minds," Wilding told the 
authority's Finance Committee yesterday before it voted to postpone some 
construction. "We're just now going to have to live with the C and D 
Concourse longer than we would have liked."

Dulles officials said they made their expansion plans when the 1990s air 
travel boom looked unstoppable. Now that the future is less certain, they 
need to scale back, they said.

"We build facilities in response to demand," said James E. Bennett, executive 
vice president of the authority. "We see air travel has been impacted, so 
these facilities don't need to be built as soon as we thought we'd need 
them."

The Federal Aviation Administration recently estimated that air travel 
nationwide will drop 12 percent in the current fiscal year and then grow more 
slowly than in the past because of the terrorist attacks. Dulles officials 
said that forecast makes some new facilities less necessary in the short term 
and more difficult to pay for.

The past seven months have been difficult for the airports authority. Not 
only have airlines cut back on flights, but revenue has been reduced by 
National Airport's three-week closure after Sept. 11 and subsequent federal 
restrictions that are only now being lifted.

Bennett said the authority wants to delay incurring $1.5 billion in debt for 
new construction until it is clear how quickly air travel will recover and 
grow.

The authority's board of directors will vote next month on the scaled-back 
plans.

The massive 10-year building program was launched at Dulles in 2000 to keep 
up with breakneck growth that was fueled by the surge in Northern Virginia's 
technology economy. In the late 1990s, only Baltimore-Washington 
International Airport rivaled Dulles as the country's fastest-growing major 
airport. BWI is in the midst of an accelerated $1.8 billion construction 
program to add gates and parking and to improve access roads.

Wilding said the authority and United Airlines had hoped to replace the 
midfield terminal (Concourse C-D) with a more modern, airy building with 
wider hallways, larger gate waiting areas and more room for shops and 
restaurants. The airlines built that concourse piecemeal during the 1980s 
from former service buildings as a temporary solution to the rapidly growing 
number of passengers.

Wilding stressed that the authority will continue to review travel 
projections and could put the midfield terminal replacement and other 
postponed projects back on track at any time.

Joe Hopkins, a United Airlines spokesman, said United has agreed to the 
cancellation of similar building plans at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport 
and Denver International Airport. The airline lost $2.1 billion last year and 
does not welcome the higher rents and fees that come with new facilities 
built for its use.

Although more passengers return every month, Hopkins said, airlines are 
continuing to lose money from lower fares.

"The timing isn't right now," Hopkins said of replacing the Dulles terminal.

United and its regional carrier, Atlantic Coast Airlines, have about 60 
percent of the flights at Dulles, airport officials said.

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, applauded the 
airports authority for keeping most of the construction of the underground 
people mover on schedule, saying the mobile lounges have been the "biggest 
irritant" for Dulles passengers.

Stempler said the older midfield terminal lacks sit-down restaurants and 
shops, leaving few amenities for travelers arriving at the airport extra 
early to clear security. Still, he said, he's never found the concourse 
"terribly offensive."

"It would be a hardship" to delay replacing the concourse, Stempler said, 
"but I think the priorities they've set are the right ones."

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