Travelers on United Airlines Flight 1252 from Washington to Chicago on Tuesday are in for a surprise.
They will be the first to depart from the spacious new E Gates at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), the first piece of the airport’s more than $20 billion redevelopment and the future center of United’s hub operation at the airport.
“It’s much more spacious,” Andrew Nocella, the chief commercial officer of United, said at a ribbon cutting on Monday. “The gate hold areas are large so there’s plenty of places to sit and there are all kinds of new, great restaurants to enjoy.”
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Nocella added: “It’s the tip of the iceberg to the future development of Dulles.”
The redevelopment calls for the extension of the E Gates far to the west with room for up to 50 gates. The rest of IAD will also get a needed upgrade, including the modernization and expansion of Eero Saarinen's iconic terminal, an extension of the AeroTrain and a new international arrivals facility. The aim is to open all of this by the mid-2030s.
“This is the first step to retiring Concourse C-D [and] eliminating mobile lounges — someday," said Jack Potter, the CEO of IAD operator the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
The new E experience
For now, though, the focus at Dulles is on the new E Gates. They're located directly above the AeroTrain station for Concourse C. That is possible because the station was built in 2010, a long walk to the south of the existing Concourse C with the plan to eventually build a concourse above it.
Travelers coming from the train enter the E Gates in a large, high-ceilinged atrium with the new United Club immediately to their right. At 40,000 square feet, the new lounge is the second largest in United's system after the one recently opened at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH).
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The look and feel of the lounge draws its aesthetic from the Washington, D.C., area. The entryway is inspired by the Washington Metro's vaulted subway stations; a cherry blossom mobile hangs in the central seating area; and a Blue Ridge Mountain-themed mural is painted on one of the walls.
"Lounges are very important to our customers," said Nocella. "You can see no design detail was left untouched" in the new E Gates lounge.
From the E Gates atrium, travelers make their way down the concourse itself. Gate areas are interspersed with concessions along the length. And, above, a sterile hallway takes arriving international travelers to the end of the concourse where they can board a mobile lounge to the international arrivals facility in the main terminal.
United will operate both international and domestic flights from the E Gates, Nocella said.
And, for design enthusiasts, the authority used Saarinen's original font for the gate numbers in the new concourse.
E for expansion at Dulles
The E Gates will allow United to grow its hub at IAD. The airline plans to grow departures by about 20% next summer to around 300 daily flights, up from 250 earlier this year, Nocella said.
United will operate up to roughly 275 departures from IAD in November, schedule data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows. In June 2027, the number jumps to as many as 290 a day though schedules remain in flux.
What the E Gates will not do is replace the six ground-level gates at the end of Concourse A — gates A1 to A6 — used by United Express regional jets. This was the original plan when the project was approved in the early 2020s.
Instead, United will use the new E Gates to "take the pressure off the C and D facility," Nocella said.
Potter, when asked when the airport authority will close the ground-level A Gates, said: "They’ll stay open until construction has proceeded sufficiently such that they can be relocated."
The authority aims to complete the build out of Concourse E, and the first phase of Concourse G further to the south, by 2030, Potter added.
United plans to expand its IAD hub to around 400 daily departures with all the new gates, Nocella said.
Asked when the airline would grow to 400 departures, he smiled and said they will unveil that at a "different announcement."
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