00:00Speaking of infrastructure, Dulles International Airport outside of Washington, D.C. is going to get a long overdue renovation, according
00:06to President Trump.
00:08It's considered one of the worst airports anywhere in the world. We're going to make it maybe the best with
00:13some hard work and some good thought process.
00:17The Department of Transportation estimates it's going to cost more than $20 billion, that's with a B, dollars.
00:22Our friend Kristen Kapps, Bloomberg City Lab, has been looking at the President's efforts to reshape the nation's capital.
00:28The President's saying this is going to be the best airport. What's he proposing to do to make it the
00:33best airport?
00:34Well, they really kind of want to start from scratch.
00:38United Airlines has had this plan going for a while to really take Dulles and correct all the mistakes that
00:45have been there since the original 1962 design, rebuild all the concourses, build a new train underneath, get rid of
00:52those wonderful people movers, and build something new.
00:56Okay, so for people who don't know, the people movers are these crazy buses that when they started, they were
01:02supposed to be kind of chic.
01:03They were supposed to be like a mobile lounge, swing in the 60s, cocktail lounge.
01:07Now they're like a bus that goes up on these weird stilts to the gate, drives you, but they're strange.
01:14And when people aren't used to them, I know I had a friend land there a couple months ago, and
01:17she's like, I'm on a bus.
01:18Wait, what is the bus doing?
01:19The bus is going up in the air, and they take forever, because if you get off a flight, you
01:22then have to wait for everybody to load this bus, because you can't get on a train.
01:26How do you feel about the people movers?
01:27People love or hate them.
01:29I find them dystopian.
01:31I want one.
01:34Yeah, it's, I mean, you may be able to get one.
01:36You may be able to get one.
01:37Yeah, when you get off an international flight, and you're, like, tired, and you have to go get your baggage,
01:42it's just like this one extra step.
01:44And it's really, really exhausting, and I think that's really where it comes from.
01:48The original design was to actually keep people from walking, to, like, spare them that inconvenience by not having gates
01:55at all.
01:56I see.
01:56You would just go from the terminal.
01:58You're supposed to go right to the plane, right?
01:59Yeah, directly onto the plane.
02:00Well, that, like, didn't work out.
02:02Okay.
02:03And it was a costly decision, and they've had to do all these temporary concourses over years, and they've kind
02:09of, like, stitched together an airport where they didn't originally have one.
02:13And now United Airlines and the Airport Authority want to fix it, and they've got President Donald Trump on board.
02:20I find this airport to be inconvenient, far outside the city, but I do appreciate the Saarinen entryway, this beautiful
02:29architectural piece.
02:31Is Trump going to ruin that, or is that going to remain in this redesign?
02:35It remains to be seen.
02:37Oh, no.
02:37You know, Trump has said that he really liked it.
02:40That's the one thing he liked about us.
02:42That's the one thing everyone likes.
02:43It is cool.
02:43It's a very nice image when you, it's, yeah.
02:46But the renderings that we've seen, and we really don't know who's responsible for them, but what has been shared
02:51shows, like, a topper on top of it, a kind of curving glass addition.
02:57And to me, that's, like, adding to the Nike swoosh.
03:00You can't really keep.
03:01Don't mess with it.
03:02Don't mess with it.
03:03Yeah, it's behind you there, and I asked you when you sat down, I said, is it, are they keeping
03:07it, or are they kind of covering it?
03:09It's almost like they're covering it.
03:10And also, why Dulles?
03:12There's a lot of airports around the country.
03:14Does this justify, the amount of traffic at Dulles, does it justify this kind of a rebound?
03:18Yeah, that's a great question.
03:20So, Dulles is the mighty number 22 airport in the nation, and now it's going to be the best, if
03:26not in this country, then, you know, possibly in the world.
03:29So, it's not a place where people transfer through.
03:32It's not a hub.
03:33Something like 70% of flights are into or out of Dulles.
03:39It's the final origin destination.
03:41I thought it was a hub.
03:42Okay.
03:42So, it's not like, it's not going to be, like, Qatar or, you know, Seoul, these, like, extremely fancy transportation
03:52hubs.
03:54But it is going to cost as much as that.
03:56Well, on that point, who's going to pay for this?
03:58$20 billion.
04:00I'm going to guess it's going to go more than that.
04:02It's going to be more expensive than that.
04:03How is the financing of this going to work?
04:06It's passengers who are going to pay every time you fly in and out of.
04:10At current traffic levels, it would add, you know, on average, $90 to a ticket.
04:15$90 to a ticket.
04:16That's right.
04:16And for D.C. residents like myself, who will always pick DCA any time we get a chance, it's going
04:24to be one more reason to try to avoid Dulles.
04:27But United Airlines does not see it that way.
04:29And, you know, their passenger levels, their traffic has been increasing year over year.
04:34They've had their best two years ever in a row at Dulles.
04:37So, they think they can keep this record going.
04:41But they have to really keep and surpass it to really make this cost measure out.
04:47That's interesting to me because when you're booking flights, if you live in the D.C. area, a lot of
04:51times, DCA, Reagan, is more expensive.
04:53But when you factor in the fact that it's 40 minutes in an Uber or on a train, it's $70
04:57each way.
04:58And it kind of – so, if you're going to add another cost on top of that, one of the
05:01only reasons I ever flew out of there is because it was cheaper.
05:03Yeah, I'm flying through Nationals.
05:05There we go.
05:06You mentioned United.
05:07They have their Polaris lounge.
05:09And this was something we heard from the president as well.
05:10This is a big part, United kind of embracing this new level of luxury travel.
05:15What's that going to look like in this airport?
05:18You know, it should be extremely fancy.
05:20And this is United's opportunity to do that.
05:23Think about the other big United airports.
05:25They can't do this, for example, in Chicago where they're sharing that airport with American Airlines.
05:32Dulles not only has – you know, they have the traffic share at Dulles, but Dulles has the space.
05:38They can build out at Dulles.
05:40And they mean to make a luxury experience.
05:42So, you know, maybe we can have a cocktail at Dulles finally the way they planned it from 1962.
05:48Gaze out at the data centers surrounding landscape.
05:51That's right.
05:52It seems like this is a United plan.
05:55This benefits United more than almost anybody else.
05:58You know, it's really incredible.
05:59Usually an airport plan like this would take years, if not decades, just to go through the legal approvals.
06:07You're talking engineering, design, environmental.
06:10And they would phase it out, not just to go through this legal process, but also to mitigate risk.
06:16But United has seen, under CEO Scott Kirby, a real opportunity in President Donald Trump because Trump does not go
06:26through those legal approvals when he does planning projects.
06:29And by enlisting the president in this mission, you've got pre-approval that could cover, you know, who knows how
06:36much bureaucratic red tape.
06:37Is he like a modern-day L'Enfant when you think about what Trump's trying to do here?
06:41Is there any cohesive plan for what he wants to do with D.C. as we think about what's happening
06:46with the mall and the reflecting pool and all of these memorials and monuments, the helipad?
06:50Is there a cohesive Trump vision for what he wants the greater Washington area to look like and be?
06:56I have not heard any Washingtonian describe him as a modern-day L'Enfant.
07:00I'm going to—
07:00Trademark it right here.
07:01Bring it back.
07:02I'll float that around and see what my neighbors say.
07:03Get back to us.
07:04See how folks feel about that.
07:05Make sure to give them David's email.
07:08It appears to involve a lot of gold.
07:10There's a lot more gold than we had before in Washington.
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