By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump plans to hold a meeting on Wednesday about his plan to overhaul the primary international airport for the U.S. capital area, the White House said, after he harshly criticized its design in December.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is also expected to take part in the meeting on federally owned Washington Dulles International Airport’s future.
The airport, which is located about 25 miles (40 km) from the U.S. capital and opened in 1962, is set for a new 435,000-square-foot (40,412-square-meter), 14-gate concourse this fall serving United Airlines customers.
It had a record year in 2025, the airport authority reported on Tuesday, handling 29 million total passengers, up 6.4%, while rival Reagan National Airport saw traffic fall 5.4%.
Trump in December said he planned to rebuild Dulles “because it’s not a good airport. It should be a great airport… They have a great building and a bad airport.”
Trump said he has a new design in mind for Dulles.
Finnish architect Eero Saarinen designed the airport’s terminal building, a distinctive structure with a sloping roof that sweeps up toward the sky on opposite sides. It is considered a leading example of Mid-Century Modern architecture.
The Transportation Department in December sought proposals to completely overhaul the airport, including potentially tearing down the historic main terminal.
The agency criticized the “jet fuel smell in the concourses” and the “paltry” number of gates in the main terminal, adding Dulles “is no longer an airport suitable and grand enough for the capital of the United States.”
The airport is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority under a 50-year lease approved by Congress.
Reuters and other media outlets reported this month that Trump offered to drop his hold on funding for a key $16 billion New York Hudson River tunnel project in exchange for Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer supporting the renaming of Dulles Airport and New York Penn Station after Trump.
Last week, state lawmakers in Florida approved legislation renaming the Palm Beach International Airport after Trump.
Dulles is named after John Foster Dulles, who served as U.S. secretary of state under President Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
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