$1B International Terminal Remains on Track for July Opening

The airport board unveiled the 29-acre project over the weekend to a bevy of travel and business writers from major news outlets and trade publications representing 13 countries, many of whom are en route to an annual hospitality "pow-wow" in New York City. Terminal D goes into operation July 6 with a soft opening by foreign flag airlines. Three days later, the airport's anchor, American Airlines, begins flying 115 international and domestic routes from its 19 gates in the 28-gate facility.

The expansion project includes a 303,500-sf Grand Hyatt linked to the terminal and designed with 298 rooms and 34,000 sf of event space; 21,000-sf Admirals Club; 80,000 sf of sold-out retail space to nearly 100 concessionaires; a Skylink transport system with eight miles of track and two stations in each of the five terminals; and plenty of room to park the industry's latest mega-model, the A380. Skylink, built to shuttle 10,000 passengers per hour at 35 mph, is reported to be the longest and fastest airport transport system in the world. It will come on line by the end of May in the other terminals.

Paul Rimmer, DFW Port director for the US Customs and Border Protection, tells GlobeSt.com that the international gateway will open with 34 of 50 available immigration stations or four more currently operating in the airport's entry points spread across three terminals. The plan is to mothball an estimated 15,000 sf in the three terminals while the airport board mulls over its fate. The lion's share is a prime candidate for retail use, officials say.

Rimmer's 108-member customs staff handled 2.3 million passengers last year, with daily flows ranging from 3,000 to 10,000. The new state-of-the-art gateway is about 60,000 sf of infrastructure and passenger patterns that should reduce processing times at peak periods, Rimmer says. A couple times per week, processing can take an hour or slightly more although the off-peak is roughly 30 minutes. He says off-peak processing isn't likely to change since it's one of the quickest processing times in the nation. The processing time is key to convincing foreign travelers to use the airport as a connection to other destinations inside and outside the US.

Industry experts predict Terminal D will meet the airport's needs for the next decade, with the capacity for 99 ticketing stations to handle up to 32,000 passengers per day. The board had $1 billion invested into the plan on 9/11, the trigger for airline industry changes that could have scuttled the project. The board proceeded with the development after calculating it would take another $1 billion to pull the plug, but added $47 million of design changes to meet new requirements of the Transportation Security Administration.

Officials say they had the utmost confidence that air travel would return to pre-9/11 levels. American Airlines is flying 550 routes per day and American Eagle is funneling 300 routes daily from the airport--and it's steadily increasing. In June, a second flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil, ramps up while an Osaka route goes on line in November.

The 31-year-old airport has 31 passenger and cargo carriers, which operate routes to 35 international destinations. As part of the unveiling, the board announced the addition of the Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Cargo, which will begin freighter service in November with three flights per week between DFW and Asia.

None of the airline moves to Terminal D will drive gate closures, but will reduce the number of turns at the gates, says Clay Paslay, the facility's executive vice president of airport development, adding there could be a "redistribution" of airlines in the summer once the Terminal D moves are complete. The board also remains in talks with discount carriers to backfill gates vacated in January by Delta.

Terminal D has opened the door not only globally, but locally. Airport officials have started talks with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority and Fort Worth's Trinity Railway Express to lay lines to a 13th station that has been built at the north end as part of the a $2.7-billion, five-year expansion plan. Ken Capps, D/FW International Airport's vice president of public affairs, says the rail connection to Dallas and Fort Worth is probably a decade off, but the "wish list" even includes a plan to check bags at the airport's 13th passenger station.