Washington Dulles International Airport (IATA: IAD, ICAO: KIAD, FAA LID: IAD) is a public airport located 20 miles (32 km) west of the central business district of Washington, D.C., in Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It serves the greater Washington, D.C./metropolitan area. The airport is named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is a major hub for United Airlines and a focus city for JetBlue Airways. It is the main base for Northwest Airlink's regional airline Compass Airlines.

On a typical day, 1,800 to 2,000 flights are now handled at Dulles, up from 1000 to 1200 in 2003. It remains the second busiest trans-Atlantic gateway on the Eastern Seaboard. Recently with the demise of Independence Air, JetBlue has slowly expanded its focus city operation at Dulles with six daily non-stops to Boston and New York. It also serves non-stops to Long Beach, Oakland, Ft. Lauderdale, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach, Orlando, and San Diego making JetBlue the second largest carrier at Dulles in terms of non-stop destinations. The inception of low-cost carrier Independence Air in 2004 propelled IAD from being the 24th busiest airport in the United States to 5th, and one of the top 10 busiest in the world. At its peak of 600 flights daily, Independence, combined with service from JetBlue and AirTran, briefly made Dulles the largest low-cost hub in the United States. Southwest Airlines began service in fall 2006 after Independence Air's demise.

The airport occupies approximately 11,000 acres (45 km²) of land 26 miles (42 km) west of downtown Washington, straddling the border of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia. It is located within two unincorporated communities, including partly in Chantilly and partly in Dulles. The airport is west of Herndon and southwest of Sterling. In 1958, the former unincorporated community of Willard was torn down to make room for Dulles, and countless roads, homes, stores, and schools were demolished to make room for runways, concourses and other features. Dulles Airport is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA). In 2005, Dulles saw over 27 million passengers through the airport.

[Source: Wikipedia]

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