Washington Dulles International Airport facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Washington Dulles International Airport
IATA: IAD ICAO: KIAD FAA LID: IAD WMO: 72403
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
Serves	Washington metropolitan area
Location	Dulles, Virginia, U.S.
Opened	November 17, 1962 (1962-11-17)
Hub for	United Airlines
Elevation AMSL	313 ft / 95 m
Coordinates	38°56′40″N 077°27′21″W / 38.94444°N 77.45583°W / 38.94444; -77.45583
Website	flydulles.com
Map
IAD Location in Northern Virginia Show map of Northern Virginia IAD Location in Virginia Show map of Virginia IAD Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Runway
Runway Length Surface ft m 1L/19R 9,400 2,865 Concrete 1C/19C 11,500 3,505 Concrete 1R/19L 11,500 3,505 Concrete 12/30 10,501 3,201 Concrete 12R/30L 10,500 3,200 Planned
Statistics (2018)
Aircraft operations 354,281 Total passengers 36,060,709 5.1%
Source: Federal Aviation Administration, Passenger traffic

Washington Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD, ICAO: KIAD, FAA LID: IAD) is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia. It is 26 miles (42 km) west of Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington DC-Northern Virginia metropolitan area and the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles. He was the Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Dulles main terminal is a well-known landmark it was designed by Eero Saarinen. The airport is run by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. Dulles Airport covers an area of 11,830 acres (47.9 km²). It is on the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia.

Dulles lies in two unincorporated communities, Chantilly and Dulles. It is west of Herndon and southwest of Sterling. Washington Dulles Airport is the largest airport in the Washington metropolitan area. It is one of the nation's busiest airports. The airport has over 23 million passengers a year. Daily, more than 60,000 passengers leave Washington Dulles to more than 125 destinations around the world. Dulles is the busiest airport in Virginia. It is also the busiest in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area.

At the end of World War II, growth in aviation and in the Washington metropolitan area caused Congress to pass the Washington Airport Act of 1950. This provided the money for a second airport. The location was selected by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1958.

Airlines

Largest carriers

All airlines

Incidents

• On June 13, 1979, two tires on an Air France Concorde blew out during a take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. Shrapnel from the tires damaged an engine, three fuel tanks, several hydraulic lines, electrical wires and the top of the wing.
• On July 21, 1979, another blown tire on an Air France Concorde happened during take-off from Washington Dulles Airport. After this, the “French director general of civil aviation and Air France made it a requirement to inspect each wheel/tire before to each take-off.
• In 2001, American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757, left gate D26 at Dulles to Los Angeles International Airport. It was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon as part of the September 11 attacks.
• On August 30, 2011, the left engine of United Airlines Flight 861, a Boeing 777, made a loud noise. The cockpit of the airplane became filled with smoke. The crew turned off the left engine and returned to Dulles Airport.

In fiction

Dulles has been used for many Washington based movies. This started soon after it opened with the 1964 movie Seven Days in May. The 1983 comedy D.C. Cab, starring Mr. T, Adam Baldwin and Gary Busey showed scenes outside of the main terminal at Dulles Airport. The action movie Die Hard 2: Die Harder takes place mainly at Dulles airport. The plot of the movie deals with the takeover of the airport's tower and communication systems by terrorists. The movie was not filmed at Dulles. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the now-closed Stapleton International Airport in Denver were used. Part of the thriller The Package (starring Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones) took place at Dulles. Again it was not filmed in Dulles. Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was used in its place.

Dulles airport's terminal exterior

Portions of all three sequels to the disaster film Airport were filmed at Dulles: Airport 1975, with Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy; Airport '77, with Jack Lemmon, Christopher Lee and George Kennedy; and The Concorde ... Airport '79. Dulles was the site filmed as a New York City airport, in the 1999 comedy, Forces of Nature. The airport is also shown in the movie Body of Lies. In the scene, Leonardo DiCaprio says he is in "Dubai International" on the phone. The curved roof and windows on the upper deck of the Dulles departures area can be seen behind him. The terminal can also be seen in the movie In The Line of Fire starring Clint Eastwood.

Dulles is used in many episodes of the television series The X-Files.

• FAA Airport Diagram (PDF), effective 15 December 2011
• Resources for this airport:
  • AirNav airport information for KIAD
  • ASN accident history for IAD
  • FlightAware airport information and live flight tracker
  • NOAA/NWS latest weather observations
  • SkyVector aeronautical chart for KIAD
  • FAA current IAD delay information

Images for kids

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  Dulles Airport in 1970

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  First Lady Pat Nixon ushered in the era of jumbo jets by christening the first Boeing 747 at Dulles, January 15, 1970

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  Main Terminal Station of Aerotrain

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  A mobile lounge

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  The terminal ceiling is suspended in a catenary curve above the luggage check-in area.

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  Concourse A & B during the night

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  The interior of Concourse C and D, where United Airlines's hub operation is based

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  Air traffic control tower viewed through a skylight in the main terminal

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  Control Tower view of IAD in 1961.

See also

In Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de Washington-Dulles para niños