Washington Dulles International Airport

**Washington Dulles International Airport**  is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia. It is  west of Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington DC-Northern Virginia metropolitan area and the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles. He was the Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Dulles main terminal is a well-known landmark it was designed by Eero Saarinen. The airport is run by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Dulles Airport covers an area of . It is on the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia.

Dulles lies in two unincorporated communities, Chantilly and Dulles. It is west of Herndon and southwest of Sterling. Washington Dulles Airport is the largest airport in the Washington metropolitan area. It is one of the nation's busiest airports. The airport has over 23 million passengers a year. Daily, more than 60,000 passengers leave Washington Dulles to more than 125 destinations around the world. Dulles is the busiest airport in Virginia. It is also the busiest in the Baltimore Washington Metropolitan Area. It is accessible via the Washington Metro's Silver line.

At the end of World War II, growth in aviation and in the Washington metropolitan area caused Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950. This provided the money for a second airport. The location was selected by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958.

### Largest carriers

|Rank|Airline|Passengers|
| --- | --- | --- |
|1|United Airlines|9,698,380|
|2|Mesa Airlines (United Express, US Airways Express)|1,067,635|
|3|JetBlue Airways|1,050,845|
|4|ExpressJet Airlines (United Express)|951,085|
|5|Trans States Airlines (United Express)|901,528|
|6|American Airlines|891,974|
|7|Atlantic Southeast Airlines (Delta Connection, United Express|839,316|
|8|Colgan Air (Continental Connection, United Express)|759,520|
|9|Delta Air Lines|677,008|
|10|Southwest Airlines|640,643|

### All airlines

- Aer Lingus
- Aeroflot
- AeroSur
- Air France
- All Nippon Airways
- American Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca
- British Airways
- Cayman Airways
- Copa Airlines
- Delta Air Lines
- Delta Connection:
    - Chautauqua Airlines
    - Comair
    - Compass Airlines
    - ExpressJet
    - Pinnacle Airlines
- Emirates
- Etihad Airways
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Icelandair
- JetBlue Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Lufthansa

- Porter Airlines
- Qatar Airways
- Saudi Arabian Airlines
- Scandinavian Airlines
- South African Airways
- Southwest Airlines
- Turkish Airlines
- United Airlines
- United Express:
    - Colgan Air
    - ExpressJet
    - GoJet Airlines
    - Mesa Airlines
    - Shuttle America
    - SkyWest Airlines
    - Trans States Airlines
- Virgin America
- Virgin Atlantic Airways

### Incidents

- On June 13, 1979, two tires on an Air France Concorde blew out during a take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. Shrapnel from the tires damaged an engine,  three fuel tanks, several hydraulic lines, electrical wires and the top of the wing.
- On July 21, 1979, another blown tire on an Air France Concorde happened during take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. After this, the “French director general of civil aviation and Air France made it a requirement to inspect each wheel/tire before to each take-off.
- In 2001, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757,  left gate D26 at Dulles to Los Angeles International Airport. It was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.
- On August 30, 2011, the left engine of United Airlines Flight 861, a Boeing 777, made a loud noise. The cockpit of the airplane became filled with smoke. The crew turned off the left engine and returned to Dulles Airport.

## In fiction

Dulles has been used for many Washington based movies. This started soon after it opened with the 1964 movie _Seven Days in May_. The 1983 comedy _D.C. Cab_, starring Mr. T, Adam Baldwin and Gary Busey showed scenes outside of the main terminal at Dulles Airport. The action movie _Die Hard 2: Die Harder_ takes place mainly at Dulles airport. The plot of the movie deals with the takeover of the airport's tower and communication systems by terrorists. The movie was not filmed at Dulles. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the now-closed Stapleton International Airport in Denver were used. Part of the thriller _The Package_ (starring Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones) took place at Dulles. Again it was not filmed in Dulles.  Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was used in its place.

Portions of all three sequels to the disaster film _Airport_ were filmed at Dulles:  _Airport 1975_, with Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy; _Airport '77_, with Jack Lemmon, Christopher Lee and George Kennedy; and _The Concorde ... Airport '79_. Dulles was the site filmed as a New York City airport, in the 1999 comedy, _Forces of Nature_. The airport is also shown in the movie _Body of Lies._  In the scene, Leonardo DiCaprio says he is in "Dubai International" on the phone. The curved roof and windows on the upper deck of the Dulles departures area can be seen behind him. The terminal can also be seen in the movie _In The Line of Fire_ starring Clint Eastwood.

Dulles is used in many episodes of the television series _The X-Files_.

## Other websites

- openNav: IAD / KIAD charts

## Infobox (airport)

- **faa**: IAD
- **location**: Dulles, Virginia, Dulles, Virginia, U.S.
- **hub**: *United Airlines
- **elevation-m**: 95
- **pushpin label**: **IAD**
- **r1-length-f**: 9,400
- **r1-surface**: Concrete
- **name**: Dulles
International Airport
- **image-width**: 250
- **image2**: Washington Dulles International Airport at Dusk.jpg
- **image2-width**: 250
- **iata**: IAD
- **icao**: KIAD
- **wmo**: 72403
- **type**: Public
- **owner-oper**: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
- **city-served**: Washington metropolitan area
- **elevation-f**: 313
- **website**: [http://www.flydulles.com flydulles.com]
- **pushpin map**: USA Virginia Northern#USA Virginia#USA
- **pushpin relief**: yes
- **pushpin map caption**: Location of airport in Virginia / United States
- **r1-number**: 1L/19R
- **r1-length-m**: 2,865
- **r2-number**: 1C/19C
- **r2-length-f**: 11,500
- **r2-length-m**: 3,505
- **r2-surface**: Concrete
- **r3-number**: 1R/19L
- **r3-length-f**: 11,500
- **r3-length-m**: 3,505
- **r3-surface**: Concrete
- **r4-number**: 12/30
- **r4-length-f**: 10,501
- **r4-length-m**: 3,201
- **r4-surface**: Concrete
- **r5-number**: _12R/30L_
- **r5-length-f**: _10,500_
- **r5-length-m**: _3,200_
- **r5-surface**: **Planned**
- **stat-year**: 2018
- **stat1-header**: Aircraft operations
- **stat1-data**: 354,281
- **stat2-header**: Total passengers
- **stat2-data**: 36,060,709  5.1%
- **footnotes**: Source: Federal Aviation Administration, Passenger traffic
- **image map**: File:IAD FAA diagram.pdf
- **image map caption**: FAA airport Diagram