News out of Dallas-Fort Worth that the airport has decided to build Terminal F, which will be 24 new gates for American Airlines. But should American continue to grow DFW, and should DFW, one of the worlds largest airports by acreage and runways, be grown bigger?
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport – Already quite big
As the worlds 3rd largest airport by size, at 6,963 Hectares, the worlds 15th busiest by passengers (69.1M), Its also the worlds 4th largest in terms of operations, and has 7 total runways. Chicago O’Hare has 8 runways, Beijing has a bunch of runways as well. I remember even back when I was in grad school, we had the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of DFW at the time speak to one of my classes, noted that they could have 4 planes take off or land simultaneously, which seems like a lot to manage.
Dallas-Fort Worth Airport’s new Terminal F
Seth over at Wandering Aramean has a longer post on the details of Terminal F, but the long and the short of it is:
- New Terminal (that one if you’ve flown through DFW, is where you now pass around an awkward looking parking lot).
- 24 New Gates
- 6 years to build and open.
- Predominately benefiting American Airlines (who has roughly 80% of passengers and/or flights into and out of DFW)
DFW to add Terminal F – Courtesy of DFW and American Airlines
Wrapping Up
Bottom line, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport is a big airport. Should it get bigger? Should an American Airlines fortress hub get larger? I would argue, no.
What do you think?
y not
American benefits hugely from this. What are they actually contributing, or are they just telling DFW to spend billions on AA’s behalf? As you say, it ain’t like DFW is lacking for traffic.