Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport: A Comprehensive History

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, first known as the Dallas–Fort Worth Regional Airport (airport identifier DFW), officially opened on January 13, 1974, when the first commercial flight that day, American Airlines Flight 341, flew from New York to Dallas via Memphis and Little Rock, touching down exactly on time. Before the airlines began flying in and out of DFW, an expansive dedication service took place from September 20–23, 1973, and included dignitaries, entertainers, and the landing of the first Air France Concorde.   

The first proposal for a joint airport for Dallas and Fort Worth occurred in 1927. Replete with arguments between the cities, the history of the airport included many meetings and negotiations before any tangible agreements came to fruition. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CCA) approached the city of Arlington to sponsor an airport midway between the two larger cities. The federal government in 1940 instructed the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth to build a regional airport as no further money would be allowed for Love Field in Dallas and Meacham Field in Fort Worth. Both Dallas and Fort Worth were interested, since expansion of Meacham Field and Love Field in Dallas would require extensive construction to accommodate increasing air traffic and larger aircraft. Arlington agreed, and with the support of American Airlines (see AMR CORPORATION) and Braniff Airways, which were to deed 1,000 acres of land, the CAA was to build the landing area; a seven-man board would control overall operation of the field. Construction began in 1942, but a disagreement over which way the terminal building should face, along with other considerations, caused the airport, then called Midway, to be turned over to the city of Arlington in 1943. It was operated during World War II by the military as a training field and for test flights. In 1946 Fort Worth hired a firm to prepare an airport plan for the city. The next year it decided to develop Midway as its major airport and renamed it Greater Fort Worth International Airport. Dallas continued to develop Love Field. In 1948 the CAA National Airport Plan recommended that Greater Fort Worth International Airport be expanded into the major regional airport. Fort Worth annexed the site and continued to develop the airport with the support of American Airlines. Dallas continued its opposition. According to the Dallas Morning News, at one time the feud became so bitter that Fort Worth mayor Amon G. Carter refused to eat in Dallas restaurants and, when business made it necessary for him to be in Dallas, he carried a sack lunch. In 1950 the Fort Worth City Council renamed the airport Amon G. Carter Field. In September 1951 a bond election was held, and voters approved $28.9 million in bonds. Another election was held in May 1952 in which $1.5 million was approved for aviation improvements. This issue was part of the Love Field–Carter Field competition during the 1950s. The airport officially opened in April 1953.

During the 1950s two attempts were made by Fort Worth to convert Carter Field into a joint regional airport with Dallas participating as a full partner. Both efforts were rebuffed by Dallas, and expansion of Love Field continued. In May 1960 the airport, renamed Greater Southwest International Airport, was purchased by the city of Fort Worth to compete more successfully with Love Field, and a municipal board was established to supervise the city's airports.

From 1959 to 1965 the percentage of enplaning passengers from Greater Southwest declined from 6 percent of Texas air traffic to less than 1 percent, while Love Field increased from 40.3 percent to 49.0 percent. The result was the virtual abandonment of Greater Southwest International Airport and serious congestion at Love Field. Though Dallas and Fort Worth were archrivals, the Federal Aviation Administration (formerly the CAA) refused to put any more money into duplicate installations. FAA head, Najeeb Halaby, a native Texan, held a press conference in Dallas during May 1961 and stated that the two cities needed to create a joint airport. On August 9, 1962, Halaby declared that the FAA would not spend “another penny” at Dallas Love Field.  In 1964 the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) ordered the two cities to come up in less than 180 days with a voluntary agreement on the location of a new regional airport, or the federal government would do it for them. CAB examiner Ross I. Newmann served as a mediator between the two cities to find a solution. Both cities appointed committees, and by 1965 plans were set for a Dallas–Fort Worth Board, which would consist of eleven members—seven from Dallas and four from Fort Worth. The driving force behind the building of DFW was Thomas M. Sullivan, a civil engineer, who developed and ran the airport from 1968 to 1975. He served as the executive director of the Regional Airport Authority, the entity responsible for creating the massive complex. His designs led him to consultant positions at airports around the world, including Heathrow Airport in London, Orly Airport in Paris, along with Kennedy International Airport and La Guardia Airport both in New York.    

The site for an airport, originally called Dallas–Fort Worth Regional Airport, was chosen. The plan received broad support, and revenue bonds were sold totaling $35 million for construction. In December 1968 ground was broken at the intersection of the towns of Euless, Irving, and Grapevine. The new site included the old Greater Southwest International Airport. The airport was five years under construction at a cost of $700 million. At the time of the opening of the airport nine airlines operated there, including American (AAL), Braniff (BNF), Continental (CAL), Delta (DAL), Eastern (EAL), Frontier (FFT), Ozark (OZ), Rio Airways, and Texas International (TIA). As of the 2020s, few of those carriers still existed in their original iterations. Braniff, for example, ceased operations in 1982 and Eastern in 1991. In addition, extensive facilities were in operation, including a 600-room hotel, a post office, and various shops and restaurants. Love Field declined rapidly, falling from close to seven million passengers in 1973 to less than 500,000 in 1975, though it gradually recovered in the 1980s and 1990s. A crash of a Lockheed Tristar L-1011, Delta Flight 191, occurred at DFW Airport on August 2, 1985. Caused by a thunderstorm microburst, the crash killed 137 passengers. The tragedy led to the development and use of new Doppler radar technology that gave pilots a better tool for negotiating inclement weather while in the air.

When designed, the airport occupied total grounds of more than 17,000 acres, equaling almost twenty-seven square miles, an area larger than the island of Manhattan. The original plans provided for thirteen terminal buildings along a nine-mile International Parkway. The first design for the terminals included a linear hallway running for two miles, however architect Gyo Obata, a Japanese American, envisioned a half-circle motif with lots for parking in the middle, and the original construction consisted of four pueblo-like terminals, each with a horseshoe shape. Each of the four terminals contains 790,000 square feet of covered space and can accommodate eighteen Boeing 747s. The grand design of thirteen terminals ultimately would provide 234 aircraft-boarding gates, up to eleven runways, and cargo-handling capability equal to the world's largest seaports, with expansion to take place as needed. The terminals were connected by the world's first automated transit system, called Airtrans that could move 9,000 people, 6,000 bags, and 70,000 pounds of mail each hour.

When runway construction began by 1972, the contract at the time was the world’s largest as three million yards of concrete were laid. Enough concrete and asphalt were used on the runways and roads to pave a four-lane expressway from Dallas to Oklahoma City. Air traffic is controlled from a 196-foot control tower with two separate control cabs for the two sets of parallel 11,400-foot runways. The eleven-sided tower cab is the only one of its kind in the world. For controlled aircraft approaches there are five instrument-landing systems. Allied Aviation developed a first of its kind in the United States fuel delivery system—an underground hydrant structure for fueling to airport gates that eliminated the need for large fuel trucks in the vicinity of aircraft and terminals. Fuel from the underground tanks ensures the proper dispensing of fuel to the aircraft.  During 2004 additional tanks increased capacity by an added 30 percent.

From 1974 to 1988 an additional $600 million was spent on expansion and improvements. The name change occurred in 1985 when Dallas-Fort Worth Regional Airport transitioned to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, promoting continued expansion while acknowledging world recognition. In 1988 Dallas–Fort Worth International Airport was the fourth largest airport in the world, as 42,000,000 passengers enplaned there on 635,000 flights. That same year, under the threat of increased noise and reduced property values, the cities of Irving, Euless, and Grapevine began a legal battle against planned expansion of the airport. The United States Supreme Court sided with the airport in 1994.

To honor the founders of DFW Airport, the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, airport employees, and travelers throughout the world helped create a viewing area for families, employees, and aviation enthusiasts to watch aircraft take off and land. Known as Founders’ Plaza, the observation area opened in 1995 and includes parking, picnic tables, a memorial monument, telescopes, historic information, and transmissions via radio from an FAA tower.  The plaza was renovated and reopened in 2019. 

In 2001 the airport served 27,271,848 passengers and was the fifth-busiest airport in the world. On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four U.S. airliners, with two crashing into the World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashing into a field in Pennsylvania. In the wake of these terrorist attacks, the screening of airline passengers and baggage transitioned to federal officials under the newly-organized Transportation Security Agency. This system, created to provide safety for airlines and their customers, adopted numerous security measures that brought serious changes to the whole travel experience. Plans for a $2 billion expansion that included terminal D coincided with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Excavation had commenced, and a large area that had been dug sat empty. However, the airport forged ahead with construction allowing for terminal D to open in 2005.

Delta Airlines operated a three-decade hub at DFW until 2004 when financial concerns prompted the carrier to relinquish twenty-four gates. Delta had been a mainstay of the airport since its opening in 1974. American Airlines added about 115 flights giving passengers more options after Delta left the complex. Delta received $7 million from DFW for the gates they once held because of the improvements the airline made in Terminal E, and DFW offered other airlines one year free rent and up to $22 million of aid to fill the gap. The loss of Delta’s hub presence cost the airport an estimated $35 million that year from lost rent, landing fees, and concession dollars. At the time it was estimated that a $50 million revenue loss would impact the airport’s annual revenue.  

Sitting under airport land is a section of the Barnett Shale natural gas deposit. In 2006 DFW airport sold the rights to Chesapeake Energy and earned $185 million up front with a 25 percent royalty on gross revenues. Chesapeake sold its rights in the Barnett Shale and closed half of the wells at DFW. However in 2018 the airport still gained 2.3 million in royalties.

DFW Airport totaled $841 million in revenue in 2017. After debt service on approximately $6.7 billion in bonds for future expansion and refunds to airlines that pay fees to the airport, a $69 million income resulted. In 2018 ports of entry in Texas accounted for $740 billion in international trade. Of that total $55 billion either arrived or departed by air with DFW Airport. According to the Texas comptroller at that time, the airport included an estimated 163,800 net jobs to the state with at least $24.7 billion in gross domestic product to the state’s economy. DFW's top three trading partners are China, South Korea, and Vietnam, and these countries account for approximately 43 percent of all trade through the airport. The top trading nation, China, represented 23.8 percent of total trade in 2018. DFW in 2018 ranked the number one airport in the state for cargo tons and tenth nationally.

 In 2019 American Airlines opened the 23,130-square-foot terminal D international Flagship Lounge exclusively serving their first-class passengers, along with those of other carriers that through agreements share clubs. Air Transport World named DFW the 2019 Airport of the Year. But the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a 90 percent drop in passengers at the airport literally overnight. Only 26,198 passengers passed through DFW in April 2020, for example.  Even during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, DFW began or completed more than forty new infrastructure projects valued at more than $500 million with the creation of more than 4,300 jobs in North Texas. These improvements included the Runway 18R reconstruction, expansion of Terminal D, additional gates at Terminals A and C, upgrading the Terminal C garage, along with modification to International Parkway. Passengers can transit through to any of the five terminals on Skylink, which opened as a replacement for Airtrans in 2005. The free train is located within the security area. In another important project, the airline planned for a 390,000-sqare-foot Central Fulfillment Center that facilitates the speed of parts requests up to 75 percent.

The airport experienced a strong rebound in passenger traffic in 2021. Of the top ten busiest airports (in numbers of passengers) in the world for the year 2021, DFW ranked number two with 62,465,756 passengers (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport [ATL] ranked number one). In 2022 approximately 73 million passengers passed through the five terminals at DFW. The increase in passengers transiting the airport was due to three main factors: an increase in new residents to the Dallas-Fort Worth region, an increase of foreign travelers and a streamlined customs process, and increased international business especially to Mexico. DFW became equipped with Global Entry Kiosks, making fluid the customs process, and a new system tagged Simplified Arrival uses biometric facial comparison technology and represents the latest innovation meant to speed up the process at DFW.

Influential companies such as Lockheed Martin Corporation and Bell Helicopter Textron that employ more than 26,400 created an interdependent relationship with the DFW Airport complex. Overall, aerospace companies exceed 900 in the 2020s. Texas Instruments has been the basis of the high-tech movement in the region, and approximately thirty-three tech companies relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2021.     

DFW’s central location in the United States has also facilitated international travel to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The Dallas Fort Worth International Airport has 191 domestic destinations and 63 international destinations. American Airlines, based in Fort Worth, remains the largest aviation component at DFW. In addition to American Airlines, other carriers serving DFW include Air Canada, Air France, Alaska Airlines, Avianca, British Airways, Delta, Emirates, Frontier Airlines, Interjet Airlines, JetBlue, Korean Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas Airlines, Qatar Airways, Spirit Airlines, Sun Country, United Airlines, Viva Aerobus Airlines, and Volaris Airlines. In 2023 Frontier Airlines opened a new crew base at DFW to be home to almost 350 pilots and flight attendants. As of 2023, nineteen cargo airlines provide global freighter service allowing DFW status as a cargo gateway. About $20 billion are generated by the cargo service at DFW each year. 

DFW International Airport ranks number three in physical size worldwide behind King Fahd International Airport (DMM) in Saudi Arabia and number two Denver International Airport (DEN). Three control towers—one central tower with the other two located east and west of the airport—ensure safety for all airlines. The airport boasts seven runways.

LSG Sky Chef provides catering at DFW, and this includes airlines and lounge catering and covers all food service. American Airlines founded Sky Chef in Texas in 1942, while LSG, which originated as an independent company by Lufthansa Airlines in 1966, acquired Sky Chef by 2001. A $100 million new kitchen was approved by the DFW Airport Board in 2019 and opened in 2023 as the largest airline catering facility in the United States. Situated on twenty-one acres of land in the southwest quadrant of DFW, American will lease the land for forty years, with a projected cost of $39 million. 

Through its business and leisure travelers the airport sustains about a $37 billion financial impact for the North Texas economic region. As an employment magnet for North Texas, DFW has about 60,000 workers onsite (of which 33 percent are women), with more than 2,000 employees tied to the airport’s board, and an overall economic impact that supports 228,000 jobs in North Texas. Governance for DFW includes a semi-autonomous board comprised of twelve members. The city councils of Dallas and Fort Worth appoint the representatives, seven from Dallas and four from Fort Worth apportioned according to percentages of ownership by each. One non-voting position represents four peripheral cities---Irving, Grapevine, Euless, and Coppell and is appointed on a rotating basis each year.

The airport complex offers all necessary support services for both private and corporate aircraft arriving or departing from DFW. A good number of aviation-related business surround the airport complex, including Jay Davis Aviation Photography, AeroPhotographic, Bassco Services & Allied Oil Equipment, Armstrong Aviation, Helicopter Exchange; Ameriflight, Monocle Industries, Unitron Power Systems, General Electrodynamics Corporation, Simtek, Aviall Services, Next Wave Logistics, and Crouzet. Also an Airline Flight Dispatcher Training Center provides education and certification for dispatchers.

The airport has a designated zip code, the Airwire newsletter, and its own police force. The complex also operates its own medical facilities and became the first in the world to open an emergency room in 2018. A contemporary Fire Training Research Center operates at DFW where live testing fires occur during exercises. Additionally, DFW has its own wildlife administrator to remove plants and seeds that attract birds to the airport complex, resulting in fewer bird strikes. At each of its five terminals A through E, the airport offers varied amenities from clothing stores, gift shops, restaurants, and lounges. The United Service Organization (USO) hosts traveling military and veterans at DFW Terminal B in a 6,000-square-foot facility. Two hotels are located within the airport, the Grand Hyatt in Terminal D and the Hyatt Regency in Terminal C. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport celebrated fifty years of service in 2024.