entropy

z-10,000m, standby photon torpedoes.



Where are they going to go? The international carriers except AC can't serve DCA, so for international flights its the only game in town. And frankly, the B concourse of IAD is quite nice, the aerotrain is quite nice (its a bit ridiculous). And the architecture of the main terminal is great.

The problem is C/D, and its United's problem, all the other airlines are in B (and the part of B they renamed A). Its only a tad bit older than the Livery.

kevanyalowitz

I'll take a non-stop out of IAD ANY DAY over a connection out of DCA.

This is spot on. DC is the 3rd wealthiest US MSA - the O&D demand should be there for both domestic and international traffic. Unlike EWR, IAD is no where near capacity (unlike EWR) and rarely has weather/ATC delays (unlike EWR and ORD).

hans

I use both terminals frequently (several times a month to and from DEN) and I love the proximity to downtown (especially convenient with afternoon meeting timing).

HOWEVER - the short runway concerns me and they are already over capacity in the terminal and at the gates. There's just no room for 5 lines with heavy elite traffic.

entropy

I wouldn't, but I don't live in DC. I'd rather not deal with the hassle of a car, driving out there, car rental, OR taking the metro and the bus. perhaps once the silver line goes all the way it would tip the scales, but as of now, its an unpredictable ride. I like airports where I can target arriving 45 minutes out.

BearX220

When I lived in the DC area and routinely drove out to IAD at odd hours, I felt the same way. Now I live elsewhere but visit DC often, and IAD is my least favorite airport, even with the Silver Line reaching as far as Wiehle. I prefer BWI + MARC and that's my routine fallback when DCA is too expensive.

I know UA ought to be thinking of IAD as a long-term play in a wealthy market, but management doesn't think in terms any longer than necessary. I believe UA will continue to short IAD and create a vacuum for other, smarter airlines to exploit.

cerealmarketer

Of the major hubs of the big 3 carriers, I can't think of one that's less capacity constrained for challenger airlines than Dulles. And it's been that way since what...2005 when Independence Air gave it a go?

Plenty gates at Z and B. And no runway issues.

Just corrupt airport management and lawmakers who refuse to make the drive, and do everything they can to make National more convenient for their own trips home.

Not to mention more Gulf competition than any other airport except JFK.

Combine that with terrible traffic issues that make taking flow from other parts of the region difficult and it's not a compelling case for Delta or American to 'exploit.'

This is coming from someone who likes Dulles and wants to see it grow.

EWR764

But is that really happening? Frontier has established a sizable network of irregular service to strongly price-sensitive leisure destinations, as well as a handful of other domestic cities. I don't see carriers using IAD for any novel purpose that has thus far evaded United...

IAD's woes are attributable to United in very small part, if at all.

BrianCUnited

I think this is lost in the conversations around IAD - those of you who regularly experience only UA's terminals think (correctly) it's a dump but terminal B is quite nice. Last week I had nice glass of wine at the Starbucks (!!) while waiting for my SAA flight to board

Regardless of UA's future at IAD it will continue to be THE TATL/TPAC airport for the DC area. DC/NoVa based flyers are not keen to leave from DCA and to stop at EWR, JFK, PHL etc for long-haul flights. UA may cut some domestic feed but I don't see IAD-NRT/LHR/CDG/BRU/FRA going anywhere.

EWR764

Which is precisely why I don't see United's IAD hub going the way of CLE. It has a strong base of high-yield international demand, coupled with a feeder network to collect traffic from points across the US to augment the local demand. CLE had very little international demand, and as a purely domestic Midwest hub with a medium-sized local market, was redundant to ORD in every way.

On the other hand, IAD serves a larger, wealthier population and caters to a cohort of the market that has no viable option out of the preferred airport in the region (beyond-perimeter and longhaul). Those advantages make the incumbent position at IAD far more valuable than CLE ever was to the post-merger United.

kevanyalowitz

What hassle? UberX is $35 / 35 minute ride to IAD from the city. Thats on par or lower than most airport trip costs in other cities.

Hassle is misconnecting in ORD or EWR or having your delay free journey take ~2 hours longer than a non-stop out of IAD. On top of all of that, more and more of the DCA-ORD flights are UAX.

dcaiadflyer

I didn't realize it had gotten that cheap! Last time I took UberX, it was a $49 flat fare from the District to IAD (still far more reasonable than $70 cab plus tip, which has always been my biggest hurdle in using IAD--the RT taxi fare often costs half the price of the flight)

kevanyalowitz

The Uber IAD flat rates were done away with about a month ago, overall its now much cheaper than before.

flugvergnugen

Wait, really??? It's $55-60 from Arlington.

DCA writer

Current rate quotes at Uber's site for travel from 1800 K St. NW to IAD:

UberX is definitely cheaper than the old flat rate ($70? $65?), but the others are not.

Anyway... back to the thread.

I'm starting to wonder if we're waiting on MWAA as much as if not more than UA. The airline built a new widebody hangar at IAD a year or two back and has completed non-trivial terminal upgrades at SFO and IAH. Meanwhile, MWAA seems (understandably) intent on finishing the Silver Line before it tackles anything else big, and it also still has to prove to a skeptical public that the bad old days of fiscal mismanagement are done.

You'd think they could just take the design for the B concourse, tweak it as necessary for the C/D location and get a nice symmetrical set of terminals. But I only engineer sentences and paragraphs, not civil infrastructure.

dcaiadflyer

This is very good to know. All of my international flying the past 5 years has been IAD until this year. I definitely missed that convenience when my FCO-PHL flight left two hours late due to winds and I ended up misconnecting and having to kill several extra hours in PHL.

I'm also a huge IAD fan (I think it's beautiful, C/D excepted) and tend to agree with those posters who think that it has a reasonably bright future if it can get through the next few years. And now that I've moved over to OW, I can take the BA A380! (I'd love to see a JAL flight too but IAD-NRT seems quite well served currently)