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The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) might be compared with the juggler who amazed audiences on the "Ed Sullivan" show by keeping numerous dinner plates spinning simultaneously on the ends of poles. Spinning one plate on one pole would show some talent; spinning a dozen or more at once was a feat worthy of network television. Similarly, overhauling a major airport can be challenging; MWAA has embarked on an even more ambitious undertaking by doing two at once.
The rationale for this 2-front effort is simple: Washington National and Washington Dulles International need a lot of work. Both were built by the U.S. government, which still owns them, and until 1987, were operated by the government. When MWAA was established that year to run the two properties, one of its chief mandates was to institute improvements that had proved elusive under purely federal control. Both airports had been profitable but the profits were disappearing into the federal budget abyss, instead of financing terminal and airfield upgrades. As a quasimunicipal entity, MWAA could tap the bond market for those purposes.
MWAA has done exactly that, to the tune of about $600 million so far, and ultimately, to a projected level of nearly $2 billion. The funds are financing the Capital Development Program--a collection of nearly 200 projects. Construction equipment is a familiar sight at National (DCA), across the Potomac River from downtown Washington, and Dulles (IAD), 23 mi. to the west, in Loudoun County, Va.
Before construction began, National had 44 gates. When complete, near the end of the decade, it will still have 44 gates. It will have the same three runways. The $923 million will buy virtually no additional capacity. What it will buy, as David Stempler, executive director of the International Airline Passengers Association (IAPA), put it, is "a terminal that's no longer an embarrassment."
National's original terminal, opened in 1941, is widely admired for its columned entranceway--reminiscent of George Washington's Mount Vernon--and on the opposite side, its huge windows with views across the river to the monuments of the capital. But as demand grew sharply, the terminal became cramped. Additional structures were grafted on but they could give only short-term relief. And they added to a sense of landside chaos.
The development...