US. A record number of passengers – up +18% to 27 million – used Washington Dulles Airport last year, according to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
Nearly 5 million international passengers used Dulles last year, an increase of +5.8% on the previous year. Flights were added to several Caribbean destinations, as well as to major cities.
South African Airways introduced a new service from Johannesburg to Dulles in July. In December, United Airlines began operating non-stop flights between Dulles and several new Caribbean destinations, including Nassau, Montego Bay, Punta Cana and St Maarten. United also added more flights from Dulles to Aruba and St Thomas. Additional international flights were added to cities including Paris, Munich, Sao Paulo and Seoul.
Dulles also set a new record with more than 509,000 flight operations, up +8.5% on 2004.
The authority told the Washington Post that air travel was up sharply in the Washington area because of the region’s continued population growth, low fares and the public’s renewed comfort with flying.
But it warned that the rise in air travel at Dulles, which rose by more than 4 million, was “unsustainable” because of the loss of regional carrier Independence Air, which ceased operations last month.
Dulles is undergoing a US$3.4 billion construction project, known as Dulles Development or d2, which will add parking facilities, a runway, an underground train and other amenities over the next few years.
Construction of the Z gates was completed last year, which open in the main terminal and serve US Airways customers.
A fourth runway is expected to be finished in 2008 and an underground train that will connect terminals is expected to open in 2009.
