Dallas/Fort Worth Intl (Private Terminal)

A Legacy of Private Aviation

Dallas proposed the idea of DFW to Fort Worth in 1927, yet Fort Worth declined. As such, each city opened an airport of its own, Love Field in Dallas and Meacham Field in Fort Worth. Yet by 1940, it appears as though progress was made, as $1.9 million was earmarked by the Civil Aeronautics Administration for the construction of a regional airport for the two cities. And although an agreement was struck by American Airlines and Braniff Airways with the city of Arlington to build the airport there, the project was abandoned in 1942 when the governments of Dallas and Fort Worth disagreed over the construction. After WWII, Fort Worth, with the help of American Airlines, annexed the site at Arlington and built Amon Carter Field, transferring commercial flights from Meacham in 1953. In 1960 Fort Worth purchased the airport outright, naming it Greater Southwest International Airpot (GSW) in order to compete with Love Field (as the two sites were only 12 miles apart). This attempt failed spectacularly, and by the mid-60s, GSW was getting 1% of Texas air traffic while Love Field was getting 49%. In 1961 the joint airport idea had to be revisited, as the FAA refused to continue investing in different airports for the two cities. Furthermore, the two airports in Fort Worth declined, while Love Field was congested and had no room for expansion. In 1964 the federal government ordered that if the two cities could not agree on a site, it would unilaterally choose one for them. This prompted officials from both cities to agree on a site north of GSW, at almost the same distance from the two city centers. The two cities purchased the land, with construction beginning in 1969. But first, voters from the area had to approve the airport, which was to be named the North Texas Regional Airport (named after the North Texas Commission, which had been instrumental in making a regional airport a reality). The measure was approved, yet many Dallas residents were still happy with Love Field, and an attempt to establish an independent Dallas Fort Worth Regional Airport Authority failed (despite backing from the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and Dallas mayor J. Erik Jonsson). Instead, an airport board was established, with seven members appointed from Dallas and four from Fort Worth. Furthermore, all existing air carriers at Love Field and GSW were persuaded to move to the new airport. The airport design in 1968 provided semicircular terminals, which would isolate loading and unloading areas from the central highway and also provide room for parking in the middle of each semicircle. While 13 semicircular terminals were proposed, only four were built initially. On January 13th, 1974, Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Airport opened. Having cost $700 million, the airport covered 17,500 acres, at the time the largest ever constructed on Earth in terms of land area. Shortly after development, the surrounding cities began to annex airport property into their city limits. One early innovation at the airport was the Vought Airtrans, the first fully automated people mover. The system encompassed 13 miles of fixed guideways and transported as many as 23,000 people a day. It was later rebranded as the Airport Train and the Train (with the double A signifying American Airlines). Upon opening, DFW was served by American, Braniff International Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, Rio Airways, and Texas International Airlines. Furthermore, in 1979 the Wright Amendment barred long-distance flights from Love Field, leaving Southwest as the only jet airline at the airport, operating solely as an intrastate air carrier. During the early years of DFW, Braniff had a hub at the airport before ceasing operations in 1982. On June 11th, 1982, American Airlines established its first hub at DFW (following airline deregulation in 1978). By 1991, the American hub filled all of one terminal and most of another. In the 90s, Delta also had a hub (peaking in 1991 with a 35% market share at DFW), but by 2004 their volume had halved, and they closed their hub, going from over 250 flights a day to 21. In 1985, the airport was renamed Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. In 1989, the airport authority announced plans to rebuild the existing terminals while adding two runways, a plan that was vehemently opposed by some of the surrounding cities following an environmental study on the effects. The airport was sued, and in 1994 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the airport, which led to the seventh runway opening in 1996. Furthermore, the four north-south runways were all lengthened to their present length of 13,400 feet (with one being extended in 1996 and the other three in 2005). 2005 saw the opening of Terminal D (intended for international flights) and the DFW Skylink, a modern bidirectional people mover system that replaced the previous Airport Train system. A fully functioning, free-standing emergency room opened on airport grounds in June 2018, becoming the first actual ER on an airport’s property anywhere in the world. Following the conclusion of Super Bowl XLV in February 2011, three of the four original terminals underwent a “Terminal Renovation and Improvement Program,” which cost roughly $2.7 billion. The works were concluded in 2017.