Is DFW Really Building a Brand-New Terminal?
Jennifer Billock October 15, 2015
The Dallas airport is considering adding a sixth terminal to manage an expected influx of future passengers.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), the fourth busiest airport in the country, is in initial talks with airlines to build a new terminal. Terminal F does not yet have an estimated budget, location or timeframe, but the airport’s CEO Sean Donohue is actively trying to make it happen.
The new terminal would have 30 gates at minimum, adding to the airport’s current 165 gates. It is unknown at this point whether the new terminal would focus on domestic or international flights.
Donohue announced in a speech earlier this week that he has been considering the new terminal since last spring. He expects 70 million travelers annually by the end of the decade (up from the current 63.6 million) and thinks that, although there are seven runways, there won’t be enough gates to support that level of people. Donohue anticipates construction of the new terminal will take around five years and says the project already has the support of local leaders, including the mayors of both Dallas and Fort Worth.
The airport is already undergoing renovations — to the tune of $4.7 billion — on four of the existing five terminals, work that is expected to complete in 2020, and has recently undergone a complete rebranding to convey its desired image as a global super hub.
[Photo: DFW]
But some of those renovations to existing terminals seem to also involve getting extra gates (by what it looks like when you're walking through some of those construction areas)? So is that "current 165" gates the number operating now, or the number forecast to be operating after the construction on the existing terminals is done?