One of the odder aspects of flying out of Dulles International Airport (IAD) near Washington, DC, is preparing for a major makeover.
Yes, we are talking about Dulles’s so-called “people mover.” In the coming years, the airport’s fleet of “mobile lounges” and “plane mates” will receive a multimillion-dollar overhaul. That work, like it or not, will cement the infamous — and dare we say iconic — vehicles as part of the airport’s air transport picture for years to come.
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This week, Dulles shared a video on social media of a crane lifting a plane into the air, with the “Star Wars”-like vehicle hovering in the air.
It was on its way to a flatbed truck that was standing outside the frame, ready to transport people to Brookville, Pennsylvania, for a two-year renovation.
The renovation of the people moving machine has been approved
Last summer, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles National Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington (DCA), approved a plan to overhaul the 49-person fleet.
What is a Dulles Movers?
Technically, the Dulles fleet includes 19 mobile lounges and 30 planes in flight.
The mobile concourse, which moves passengers between concourses, is perhaps best known to Dulles visitors. You’ll likely be traveling on one if you’re flying out of United’s gate D, connecting between Concourse D and a regional gate A, or arriving from an international flight.
Companion aircraft act as mobile jet bridges, transporting passengers to remotely parked aircraft.
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Each car can carry more than 100 passengers at a time. Dulles today is the only airport in North America that still uses these types of vehicles as a regular part of airport operations.
Half a century old
The age of these cars is remarkable, dating back to Dulles’ early years in the 1960s and 1970s. They are so old that the original manufacturers no longer support the equipment.
Now, they have reached the end of their useful life, the MWAA said, and they are in need of a “major revival.”
To begin that process, crews disassembled a mate plane and a mobile lounge at the airport and transported it by truck to the facility in Brookville, about 250 miles from the airport in western Pennsylvania. .
There, teams will spend the next two years designing and refurbishing the people movers both externally and internally. Estimated price: up to 16.4 million USD.
From there, MWAA will have the right to conduct similar overhauls on 47 other vehicles at a cost that could reach $140 million within 6 years.
Crews transported the first mate to Pennsylvania on March 26, with the first mobile lounge shipped this week. A MWAA spokesperson said both are now safe at the plant.
Dulles still uses movers?
The refurbishment of the Dulles people movers was an intensive undertaking aimed at improving the people mover experience for both passengers and the workers operating them.
But it also seems clear that human transporters themselves aren’t going away any time soon.
That’s despite the airport’s plans – currently in the works – to Construction of new Concourse E to support the United Airlines hub, replacing the regional A gates, as well as a longer-term vision to eliminate the existing C/D Concourse, not to mention AeroTrain which launched service in 2010.
Indeed, the scale and versatility of people movers make them an “exceptionally useful” tool, MWAA said in a statement to TPG this week. “As Dulles continues to grow, mobile lounges and aircraft companions will continue to play an essential role in the airport’s passenger transportation needs.”
Translation: Whether you hate the experience of transporting people or find it endearing, it looks like they’ll be around – to some degree – for years to come.
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