Will Dulles Airport Makeover Be America’s First Major Airport P3?

Several months ago I received an email from an airport consultant in the U.K. He was preparing a global report on the prospects for whole-airport long-term P3s and wanted my outlook for the United States. I wrote back that no such projects were on the U.S. horizon, and I noted my recent policy paper explaining why—primarily the lack of any airport owners open to this approach.

Thus, when the U.S. DOT last month issued a Request for Information on a potential project to expand and modernize federally owned Dulles International Airport, I was both surprised and pleased. Dulles (IAD) is a far from first-rate airport for the capital city of the world’s most economically productive nation. Its original facilities are old, and newer ones were cheaply cobbled together. Access from the main terminal to the other terminals is poor—a combination of long walks and standing-room-only “mobile lounges.” IAD compares very poorly to global hubs such as London Heathrow, Frankfurt, and Sydney.

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