Trump unveils $22 billion overhaul plan for Dulles Airport

President Donald Trump planned to unveil a $22 billion rebuild of Washington Dulles International Airport on July 29, a proposal that would replace the airport’s much-maligned people movers with a new underground transport system. The question facing travelers and officials alike is whether Dulles is getting a needed fix for a known bottleneck or a politically branded megaproject with a massive price tag.

Trump was set to present the plan at the White House with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby, alongside a model of the redesigned airport. Financing is a central part of the pitch. A White House official said the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the airlines that operate at Dulles would help pay for the overhaul, instead of the federal government carrying the cost alone. Some descriptions placed the price at $22.5 billion.

The plan goes well beyond replacing the airport’s AeroTrain system. Coverage of the proposal said it would add new terminals and more than 5 million square feet of new or renovated space, with other outlines also calling for redesigned concourses and a large parking garage. The most visible passenger fix would be the underground transport system that would take the place of the airport’s familiar people movers, a change aimed at smoothing movement between terminals and other parts of the airport. The renovation is also being described as preserving Dulles’s iconic main terminal design even as it reworks how passengers get around the field.

By price alone, Dulles would sit among the largest U.S. airport overhauls now under way. John F. Kennedy International Airport’s redevelopment has been pegged at $19 billion, while Los Angeles International Airport is in the middle of a $30 billion modernization program. Dulles is also not starting from scratch. Aviation Pros said the redevelopment builds on the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s Dulles Master Plan and accelerates a modernization program previously estimated at about $7 billion. HOK said in March 2025 that it had been selected to design a major expansion at Dulles adding more than 2.8 million square feet.

Dulles opened in 1962 and was designed by Eero Saarinen, giving the project unusual symbolic weight in Washington and the broader Mid-Atlantic. The airport remains a major international gateway for business travel, tourism, and government and diplomatic traffic. Whether the overhaul becomes a durable upgrade or a long construction detour will depend on how the airport authority, airlines, and federal officials manage the rebuild while Dulles keeps operating.