Trump announces plans to rebuild Dulles airport

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will embark on a reconstruction of Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

“We’re also going to rebuild Dulles airport because it’s not a good airport,” Trump said during a meeting of his Cabinet members at the White House. “It should be a great airport, and it’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport.”

Dulles is one of the three Washington-area airports and its quality and utility is a hotly-debated topic among Washingtonians.

Trump, a former real estate mogul, said the Dulles building is good but that it was “incorrectly designed.” He nonetheless praised Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect who designed the main terminal at Dulles.

“We’re going to turn that around and we’re going to make Dulles airport — serving Washington and Virginia, Maryland, etc. — we’re gonna make that into something really spectacular. We have an amazing plan for it.”

His motorcade took an unannounced drive through the terminal at Dulles in early November. At the time, the White House said Trump wanted to take the detour to the airport to assess potential future projects.

Sean Duffy, the Transportation secretary, added that the administration is continuing its efforts to repair the so-called “people movers” at Dulles that ferry travelers in between concourses. One crashed in November.

Duffy said his agency will announce later Tuesday that they are requesting bids to repair the people movers, which are also called “mobile lounges.”