Dulles International Airport
Introduction
Washington-Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD, ICAO: KIAD) is a public airport located 32 kilometers west of the Central Business District of Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County, Virginia, USA, serving the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It is named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. It serves as a hub for United Airlines and is a major airport for JetBlue Airways. It is the main base for Northwest Airlink's regional airline, Compass Airlines.
On a typical day, between 1,800 and 2,000 flights operate at Dulles, up from 1,000 to 1,200 in 2003. It remains the second most used departure for transoceanic flights from the East Coast of the United States. Recently, with the demise of Independence Air"), JetBlue has slowly expanded at Dulles with six daily nonstop flights to Boston and New York. It also flies nonstop to Long Beach "Long Beach (California)"), Oakland "Oakland (California)"), Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach, San Juan "San Juan (Puerto Rico)") and San Diego "San Diego (California)"), making JetBlue the second company at Dulles in terms of nonstop destinations. The creation of the low-cost airline Independence Air") in 2004 took IAD to 5th place on the list of largest US airports (from 24th position), and became one of the 10 largest airports in the world. At its peak, Independence along with JetBlue and AirTran Airways made Dulles the largest low-cost airline hub in the United States. Southwest Airlines began operations at the end of 2006 after the demise of Independence Air.
The airport occupies about 17.19 mi²/ 44.5 km² (11,000 acres) and is located 42 kilometers (26 mi) west of central Washington, on the border between Fairfax County "Fairfax County (Virginia)") and Loudoun County "Loudoun County (Virginia)"). It is located partly in the town of Chantilly and partly in the town of Dulles. In 1958 the town of Willard was demolished to make room for Dulles and roads, houses, stores and schools were demolished. Dulles Airport is managed by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. In 2005, more than 27 million passengers passed through Dulles. Because the airport is located on the border of Fairfax and Loudoun counties, you can land in Fairfax and take off in Loudoun.
History
At the end of World War II, aviation and the population of the Washington metropolitan area grew, leading the United States Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950, which provided federal support for a second airport. After some initial proposals failed, including creating an international airport in what is now Burke Lake Park, the current site was chosen by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958. As a result, the people of Willard were forced from their farms, their stores, their churches and their homes.