Dulles Airport Expanded International Arrival Building Opens

The Dulles International Airport recently opened the newest of its renovations in recent years: an expanded international arrivals building. 

With the expansion, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has doubled the floor space in the building to about 400,000 square feet, has increased the number of Customs inspection positions to 50, installed six new baggage carousels, streamlined passenger flow from the international arrivals building to the passenger greeting area and incorporated public art into the design. 

The new facility can accommodate about 2,400 passengers and their luggage each hour. The original 1991 design of the building accommodated 1,400 passengers per hour.

International traffic at Dulles has exceeded the U.S. growth average year after year, according to MWAA. In 2011, the airport served a record number of international passengers—6.5 million, representing more than 25 percent of the airport's total traffic for the year.

The expanded international arrivals building features public art including: The Game of Flyers, Part Two (2012), a large, suspended sculpture in the primary inspection hall by Alice Aycock; North/East/South/West, four suspended lens sculptures beneath skylights in the baggage claim area by Ray King; and The Pendulum Project, a visual wall sculpture near the international arrivals building exit, by Mikyoung Kim.