Dallas Love Field reopened its primary runway Tuesday after a 14-month teardown and rebuild, a project that came in four months late and irked neighbors because commercial jets had to fly closer to neighborhoods.
The airport runway project faced construction slowdowns from ice storms last winter, rainy weather, supply and labor shortages as well as unexpected utility work.
Love Field now has two runways to use as the airport heads into the busiest travel stretch in two years, although the reconstructed runway on the Denton Drive side will get most of the commercial jet traffic. Friday is expected to be the busiest travel day of the summer, with 56,670 possible passengers at Love Field and 264,681 at nearby DFW International Airport.
“It is no secret that this project faced many challenges, from ice storms to supply and labor shortages stemming from the pandemic,” Love Field director of aviation Mark Duebner said in a statement. “But we are extremely grateful to our partners and construction teams for joining us in our commitment to ensure the operational safety and efficiency of the Dallas Love Field airfield.
“And to our community members, we appreciate your patience during the duration of this project.”
Love Field is the only airport in North Texas served by Southwest Airlines, which is headquartered next to the reopened runway on Denton Drive. Southwest has more than 10,000 flights scheduled to take off and land at Love Field, or about 345 a day.
The 20-gate airport also is served by Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines, along with hundreds of charter and private aviation flights, because of Love Field’s close proximity to downtown.
The 8,800-foot Denton Drive runway is primarily used by commercial airlines to reduce noise for neighborhoods on the other side of the airport.
It was built in 1990 with concrete that was projected to have a 20-year lifespan. But the airport has seen major increases in traffic with changes to the Wright Amendment over the past two decades that greatly enhanced landings and takeoffs at Love Field.
The $141 million project was financed with Federal Aviation Administration grants and facility fees paid by travelers.
Love Field only uses two parallel runways during the busiest of times, such as those following a storm.
Since the construction started, Love Field has had one of the worst on-time arrival rates for a major airport in the country, just 69% between April 2021 and April 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That compares with 78% for all airports and 75% between April 2018 and 2019 at Love Field.
Runways such as those at Love Field are thicker than traditional roads but face the same kind of wear and tear from potholes, cracks and other defects caused by weather and the force of 70- to 80-ton jets landing hundreds of times a day. The runways sometimes get refinished but every two decades need complete reconstruction. For Love Field, it had been more than 30 years since the last rebuild.
The runway was set to be rebuilt in 2020, which would have been convenient during the decline in traffic from the COVID-19 pandemic. But financial uncertainty with the city, which owns the airport, prevented the project from happening for about a year.
