Our “5 Things We Love About…” series celebrates features and amenities at airports around the country and the world.
Today, we are landing at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).
We know that right now some of the features we mention might be temporarily unavailable due to health concerns. But we are confident they will be back.
Did we miss your favorite amenity at Dulles International Airport (IAD)? Let us know in the comments section below.
Have an airport you’d like to see featured in the “5 Things We Love About…” series? Make your nomination in the comments section as well.
5 Thing We Love About Dulles International Airport
1. The IAD Main Terminal Building
Opened in 1962 as the country’s first ‘jet-age’ airport, Dulles International Airport is perhaps best-known for architect Eero Saarinen’s iconic curved-roof design for the main terminal.
2. The mobile lounges at IAD
These days, many passengers at IAD move between concourses on the underground AeroTrain, a 3.78-mile underground people mover system.
But IAD’s historic mobile lounges are in still in use.
IAD’s mobile lounges transport international arriving passengers from their arrival gate to the International Arrivals Building. The mobile lounges shuttle passengers between the main terminal and the concourses, and between concourse. And when airplanes are parked on a remote hardstand, the mobile lounges ferry passengers to the main terminal.
3. The historic FAA air traffic control tower at IAD
The original Airport Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) at Dulles International Airport dates to the airport’s opening in 1962 and remains on-site because of its historical significance to the airport’s design.
A new tower was dedicated in 2007 and is about one mile from the original tower.
4. Kids play area at IAD
What can we say? Sometimes kids have all the fun at the airport.
5. Only airport with Chipotle breakfast
Want a breakfast burrito made by Chipotle? The only place you will find that on the Chipotle menu is at Dulles International Airport.
Bonus: Pat Nixon christens 1st 747
Back on January 15, 1970 then-First Lady Pat Nixon christened the first commercial Boeing 747 during a ceremony at Dulles International Airport.
She also got to sit inside the plane’s cockpit.
Take a look at some of the other airports in the “5 Things We Love About...” series.
Thanks for visiting Stuck at the Airport. Subscribe to get daily travel tidbits. And follow me on Twitter at @hbaskas and Instagram.