On Wednesday, October 13, the DCA leadership team along with Piedmont President and CEO Eric Morgan, participated in the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) Project Journey dedication. After years of planning and execution the new 14-gate concourse, replacing gate 35X, at Reagan National Airport (DCA) opened on April 20. Along with the new concourse, DCA will soon open two new buildings with security checkpoints increasing the post-security space to include all of national hall completing Project Journey.
To celebrate DCA nearing the end of a 1 billion dollar investment, MWAA hosted a dedication ceremony. Throughout the ceremony attendees heard remarks from American Airlines Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs Steve Johnson, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, TSA Administrator David Pekoske, U.S. Senator Mark Warner, U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, U.S. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and executive leadership from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA).
The speakers emphasized the importance of providing passengers with a modernized and seamless travel experience as the demand for air travel continues to increase and the airlines return to pre-pandemic load factors. With American carrying nearly 2.8 million customers on departing flights at DCA year-to-date, the transformed airport will now provide passengers with an entire new experience flying through the nation’s capital.
“The new concourse at DCA provides a seamless experience for our passengers traveling through DCA, while also providing our team members with a new state of the art facility,” said Eric Morgan, President and CEO. “I am Piedmont Proud of what our DCA team accomplished for so many years while dealing with the daily challenges of 35X and a gate to plane busing operation. Their professionalism, innovation and determination allowed us to produce good business results in spite of the facility and airfield limitations they dealt with on a daily basis.”
Not only will passengers see a transformation when flying through DCA, but since April, our Piedmont team members have transformed their entire operation. A once gate-to-plane busing operation that became a 14 gate concourse is the new home for DCA team members. The new space also provides team members new break areas, workspaces and locker rooms.
“Since we moved in to the new concourse the team here has done a great job,” said Glen Zacek, DCA Hub Director. “Our performance has been exceptional, and I am very proud of all the hard work this team continues to do on a daily basis.”
In addition to a continued focus on putting out great performance numbers, the team is continuing to hire to support the operational demands of a new concourse. Prior to the pandemic 550 team members were at DCA, and since then have grown to over 850 team members.
“Now our DCA team has a new professional home that allows us to connect our regional communities to the nation’s capital and I am excited to see how they will use it to deliver a best in class product for our customers,” said Eric.
For more information on the completion of Project Journey, or to read more about the new concourse, visit flyreagan.com/projectjourney.