Terminal F is back on the table for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport after American Airlines came to a deal on a $1.6 billion contract extension at its fortress hub.
Fort Worth-based American Airlines, which carried 86% of the passengers that went through DFW Airport last year, is talking about up to 1,000 flights a day from its hometown airfield, but it will need more space to hit those kinds of numbers.
DFW, the world’s second busiest airport, hasn’t had a major expansion since Terminal D opened in 2005 to serve international flights. The airport now has 168 gates and could have 24 more by the time the new terminal is built – essentially adding the equivalent of a new Dallas Love Field.
“Second isn’t where we want to be when we want to be the busiest airport in the world,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said at a signing ceremony last week for a 10-year extension of the carrier’s operating agreement with DFW. “As you can see, we’re building the foundation to do that both in the facilities and also on the airfield.”
After a major downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic, DFW’s traffic is set to return to pre-pandemic levels this year. Airport officials anticipate more than 78 million passengers in 2023, even though airline capacity is throttled by a shortage of pilots.
DFW International Airport is expected to grow big over the next 27 years too, according to forecasts from the FAA. The airport could grow by as much as 80% in passenger traffic and airline flights, compared to only minor growth at Dallas Love Field. Love Field, home of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, is legally constrained to 20 gates, the remnants of an agreement made when DFW was built in the early 1970s.
DFW has become a major connecting point for American Airlines and international carriers such as Qatar, Qantas, Volaris and dozens of others. In May, the airport had 244 direct flight routes, including 186 in the U.S. and 21 in Mexico, according to Cirium. It has more routes than any other airline in the country.
While the Dallas-Fort Worth region has grown to more than 7.8 million people, it’s not necessarily an increase in the local population that is fueling the need for DFW to expand. DFW, like many other hub airports, gets most of its traffic, 61%, from passengers connecting through on their way to another airport, according to FAA data.
It’s the same for other major hubs such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world’s largest airport and a hub for Delta Air Lines, and for Charlotte Douglas, another hub for American Airlines.
It’s the opposite for airports such as Orlando and Harry Reid in Las Vegas, where only about 22% of passengers are connecting.
While American accounts for more than three-quarters of DFW passengers, other carriers are growing, too. Discount airlines Spirit and Frontier have been adding flights out of DFW and American Airlines’ Oneworld partners such as Finnair and Turkish Airlines have been adding nonstop flights to North Texas, where they can connect to one of American’s 228 direct flights.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines even decided to open a crew base at DFW last year, along with adding more flights.
Back in 2005, the year DFW opened its most recent new terminal, Terminal D, the airport served about 59 million passengers that year. By 2019, the year DFW originally announced plans for a sixth terminal, it surpassed 75 million passengers.
DFW opened with four terminals in 1974 and didn’t add true capacity until it built a satellite terminal off of Terminal E to accommodate Delta Airlines. DFW and Delta actually ended up closing that satellite terminal in 2005 and then reopened it in 2012 for American Airlines.
Since that time, DFW has been adding gates four or five at a time into connecting areas between terminals.
