Early today, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and American Airlines announced the construction of a sixth terminal at the airport and signed a new 10-year Use and Lease Agreement. Over the next decade, almost $5 billion will be spent on projects for the new terminal.
Investing even more
Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) passengers have long awaited a new terminal, announced before the pandemic. Plans for the new terminal were put on pause because of COVID when virtually the entire aviation industry came to a halt. Now, Terminal F is officially in the plans of American and DFW, featuring 15 new gates. American Airlines and the airport agreed to a deal worth $4.8 billion for airport expansion, and $1.6 billion is solely for Terminal F.
At the announcement this morning, DFW CEO Sean Donohue stated that along with the existing 168 gates at the airport, Terminal F could help increase annual passenger numbers to 100 million within the next six or seven years. In 2019, 75 million passengers flew through DFW. Although numbers dropped by 50% in 2020 because of the pandemic, a full recovery is expected in 2023, with more than 78 million passengers expected to fly through the North Texas hub.
In addition to 15 new gates at Terminal F, another nine will be added in Terminal A and Terminal C, according to American. CEO Robert Isom said that his airline's focus is DFW, home to its biggest hub and headquarters. In 2021 and 2022, DFW was the world's second-busiest airport, and Isom hopes to get DFW to number one, adding that being number two should be seen as a challenge.
“Second isn’t where we want to be, when we want to be the busiest airport in the world. As you can see, we’re building the foundation to do that both in the facilities and also on the airfield as well.”
Between the DFW Airport and its headquarters nearby, American employs 35,000 people, making the airline essential to the local economy. But the carrier's importance goes beyond the local economy, reaching 240 destinations across 25 countries on 800 daily flights.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson was also present at the announcement and highlighted the importance of the airport,
“When companies relocate to North Texas they often cite DFW airport as one of the main reasons and this comes as no surprise considering the airport’s extensive network that offers travelers across access to over, 250 different domestic and international destinations.”
Beyond Terminal F
Terminal C, which has not been significantly improved since the opening of the airport 50 years ago, will be expanded as part of the new investments by the airport and American. $2.7 billion of the $4.8 billion will be spent on developing and modernizing other terminals, like C. In July 2022, four new gates were added to Terminal C, but the original facility was left untouched. American and the airport also collaborated on this project which used modular construction.
To read more about the new High-C Gates at DFW, click here.