Big changes afoot at some major American airports

By Joe Brancatelli

AIRPORT REPORT: What Would Eero Think?

The stunning Eero Saarinen terminal at Washington/Dulles Airport is a late 20th century masterpiece of architecture and design. But it’s always been a disaster as an airport terminal trying to keep up with the demands of modern-day air travel. Hence the constant retrofitting and work-arounds that have dominated the facility for the last 30 years. airplanestock11

The latest change: a new below-ground mezzanine level that was constructed to accommodate a 121,000-square-foot security checkpoint facility to process departing passengers. The checkpoints have 16 lanes on the east side, which is dominated by United Airlines and its commuter carriers. There are eight checkpoint lanes on the west side. If you enter Dulles on the ticketing/departure levels, you’ll now see escalators leading down to the checkpoint level. The new mezzanine is only part of the ongoing work at Dulles. A new fourth level below the mezzanine will house the AeroTrain system that will move passengers from Saarinen’s terminal to the remote concourses that were built in recent years.

ROUTE MAP: Ch-ch-ch-changes

American Airlines says that it will further reduceservice at two airports where it has already shuttered hub operations. In a fairly large shift of service to its current hubs (Chicago/O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York/Kennedy and Miami), American says that it will cut its St. Louis flights by more than 50 percent and end service to 20 destinations. After the cutback, American Airlines will be down to 36 flights from St. Louis to nine cities as compared to several hundred daily flights when it acquired the hub from TWA in 2001.

And at Raleigh-Durham, a hub that American Airlines built and then abandoned a decade ago, three more cities and nine more departures will be cut. That’ll reduce RDU to 44 daily flights to eight cities. Most of the service cuts from St. Louis and Raleigh will be moved to Chicago, where American says it will add more than four-dozen flights next year. American’s announcement initiated acascade effect around the nation’s route map. As it always does, Southwest Airlines will move right in to fill the gap left by a shrinking legacy carrier. It’ll add flights to St. Louis from Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul on January 10. And United Airlines isn’t standing still in Chicago. United will add twice-daily nonstops from O’Hare to Duluth, Minn., and Asheville, N.C.

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