DFW Airport expects record Labor Day with eye toward future growth

DFW Airport says this Labor Day weekend will be its busiest ever, with 1.4 million passengers expected from Thursday through Tuesday. The airport says Monday would be among its busiest days with 250,000 people.

"It's going to be a busy, busy weekend," says Chief Executive Sean Donohue. "It's interesting. From May through June this summer, we served 24 million customers."

Donohue says DFW has broken its record for the number of passengers served on a given day 22 times this summer.

Across the country, TSA expects to screen a record 17 million passengers over the holiday weekend. Since this will include more families and people flying for pleasure, the agency urges passengers to arrive two hours before domestic flights and three hours for international flights since lines may move more slowly.

People flying into DFW said they were glad for cooperative weather.

"It was perfect. It couldn't have happened better," one woman arriving from Hartford, Connecticut said.

"It was a beautiful flight," her husband said. "It was good today."

DFW has been planning for a continued increase in the number of travelers coming to and through the airport. Last week, the airport's leadership broke a wall to mark the start of an expansion and modernization of Terminal C.

Donohue says 82 million people passed through the airport last year, and that number could reach 100 million in the next two to three years.

"This is unprecedented growth that we simply have to prepare for now," he says. "We are, in fact, making the investments needed today so our facilities are ready for the future."

Donohue says the expansion of Terminal C will cost $3 billion and is part of the $9 billion "DFW Forward" project to modernize terminals.

"As we all know, the Dallas/Fort Worth region continues to grow. We want to stay ahead of that growth," Donohue says.

Donohue says the airport works with airline partners to plan for growth. American Airlines uses most of the gates in Terminal C, and the expansion will add 115,000 square feet and four gates.

"It functions for American like a connection factory," says Jim Moses, senior vice president of DFW hub operations for American Airlines. "We connect customers all over the world with one convenient stop at DFW."

Later this year, the airport will start construction on Terminal F, which will open with 15 gates.

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