Introduction
The aim of this study is to develop and estimate a model of Dallas international airport size and changes in size so as to get the overview of how this airport has grown over time. Dallas international airport is in US and is located in the state of Texas. It’s served by many foreign and domestic airlines, that is direct and connecting flights all over the world.
Getting this information is essential as it compares the development of this international airport with other major airports in US, and to a larger extent with other major airports in other parts of the world (Boyle 77). This helps the management of the airport to implement any change to improve on their development and services offered. It’s also essential to the travelers as they get an overview of the airport. This report will hold the background, conceptual model, empirical model, data section, summary and conclusion.
Background
Dallas international airport DFW is a public airport which is operated by DFW Airport Board. Dallas city wanted it merged with Fort Worth city to form a joint Airport in 1227 but Fort Worth city declined Dallas’s proposal. Years later, they opened their own airport in the name of Love Field and Meacham Field.
In 1940, $ 1.9 million was offered by the Civil Aeronautics Administration to the two cities for the construction of a Dallas/ Fort Worth Regional Airport but the two cities declined the offer for which both Brahiff and American Airlines were already to construct the building. In around 1960s, Fort Worth was just contributing 1% of the traffic while on the on other hand, Dallas airport was flourishing with about 49% of the Texas air traffic.
However, since the FAA refused to spend any more cash, in 1961, the cities finally decided to form a joint airport. In the year 1964, they choose a site which was equally distance from both city centers and they bought a land in 1966 and started the building of the airport in 1969.
The airport started commercial services on January 13, 1974 and it was called Dallas/Fort worth Regional Airport. In 1985, its name was changed to Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport. In 1989, the airport authorities decided to reconstruct the already existing terminals and to construct two or more new runways (Boyle 32).
The seventh runway was constructed in 1969 dragging the airport into history of having the largest number of non-interconnecting runways in the world. The IATA airport code of this airport is “DFW”. Also, the airport is equipped with its own Zip code, post office and public services. It was given its own city designation by the United State Postal Services (Hargreaves 91).
Dallas International Airport is inside the city limits of four suburban cities which have resulted to legal battles over jurisdiction. In order to maintain peace and harmony with its neighbors in future, a non-voting member is included in the Board of Directors.
The member represents the community neighboring the airport. It covers an area of about 30 square miles and its located 18 miles from downtown Dallas, and Fort Worth is 24 miles away in the state of Texas. It covers 18,076 acres (7,315 ha) in terms of land area. In Texas, it’s the largest airport and the second largest in the United States, behind Denver International Airport.
Dallas international Airport is also the busiest international gateway in the United States and second in Texas after George Bush Intercontinental Airport. We cannot leave it unnamed that it was named the best cargo Airport in the world in 2006. The airport has seven run ways and an estimate of fifty seven million passengers a year. It is accessible from Hwys 183, 360, 114, 12 and 635. Dallas International Airport is also the primary hub for American eagle and serves 144 domestic and 47 international destinations.
The following are the 16 airlines that serve Dallas International Airport: Air Canada, AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, America Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Frontier Airlines, KLM, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Midwest Airlines, Sun Country Airlines, TACA, United Airlines and US Airways.
The airport has the following terminals: Terminal A, which was earlier known as Terminal 2E. The terminal mainly serves American Airlines and American eagle. It had operated most of the American Airlines international flights until the opening of terminal D. In 1990, some of the flights changed from terminal A to Terminal B and these were American eagle flights. Terminal A has 31 gates all together and its American Airlines largest hub.
Another terminal is terminal B, which was known as Terminal 2W. This terminal mainly served Braniff International Airways earlier and American eagle has taken over 32 gates of this terminal. Other airlines which used this terminal have shifted to terminal E. Terminal C is another one that bared the name Terminal 3E before. It works for American Airlines and serves only for domestic flights. All its 32 gates are occupied by American Airlines.
This terminal has 29 gates and 200 ticketing points and a federal inspection facility, which has the capability of processing 2800 travelers per hour. Another one is terminal D which is also known as International Terminal and was opened in July 2005. It covers 2,000,000 square feet and can hold 32000 passengers per day. This terminal has 29 gates, 200 ticketing points, and has the capability of processing 2800 travelers in one hour.
Conceptual model
Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport, the third busiest airport in the world with 638,782 aircrafts movements is flanked by the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth from both sides. It has the largest number of interconnecting runways in the world. It has flights which are both international and domestic and it works for the larger Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Dallas International Airport also serves AMR Corporation’s America/ America Eagle, which is the world’s largest airline in total passengers-miles transported and fleet size.
Time has seen Dallas International airport through a lot of changes that have taken place due to the impressing development of the Airport. First, the airport has expanded the construction of terminal D which opened in July 2005. The expansion was started in 2000, thus taking duration of five year and a total cost of $2.6 billion.
After this terminal development, all international operations were assigned to it while the rest of terminals were left to operate domestic airlines (Bunsell 12). Before this expansion, Dallas international Airport had four terminals; that is, terminal A, B, C and E. Now the airport covers approximately 18,076 acres of land and has developed seven non-intersecting runways and a helipad, all made of concrete. It has a total of 174 aircraft gates.
The airport has greatly improved on the ground transport over the years. The following are the ground transport services that the airport offers: transportation by car, taxi, bus, train and van/ shuttle. They also provide driving directions, parking at Dallas Fort Worth Airport and car rental. Dallas International Airport has also built hotels in the surrounding; this has proved to be very convenient for the passengers since they do not have to travel to further destinations looking for places to rest.
The following are the hotel listings at Dallas international airport: Holiday Inn Express DFW South, Holiday Inn DF South, Super 8 DFW Airport north/, Super 8 Grapevine /DFW Airport, Holiday Inn Express Airport North, HI Express DFW Grapevine, Grand Hyatt DFW and Hyatt Regency DFW.
There is an ongoing expansion of terminal E, which started in September 2011, and is part of $1.9 billion terminal renewal and improvement program (TRIP). It’s a seven year plan to develop terminals A, B, C and E by the year 2017. This is an important plan as it involves expansion of terminal space for passenger services as baggage claim, ticketing and security purposes. It also involves reactivating the satellite building.
Data section
Dallas International airport is the busiest airport in Texas. In the year 2007, nearly sixty million people were transported by the airport which makes it the seventh busiest airport in the world (Atkinson 33). The large amount of aircraft traffic that originates at Dallas international airport makes the airport a huge economic boost in North Texas. Every day, over 164,000 passengers pass through the terminals of the airport which is a clear reason why it ranks amongst the best airports in the world.
Empirical model
Dallas international Airport has grown rapidly in size, a factor that has been led by many reasons. First, Dallas international airport is located in two towns meaning that its easily accessible to human labor and many potential travelers. This has resulted to increase in income of the airport hence profit and improved infrastructure.
Dallas international airport also offers high quality services to their customer as it located in a large land hence reducing congestion. This has also been facilitated by the availability of five terminals in the airport that provides services to different airlines according to how they are assigned. These terminals include terminals A, B, C, D and E and mostly, the establishment of the Terminal D in year 2005 that serves international airlines.
The presence of high quality hotels in the area surrounding Dallas international airport is also a key factor that has contributed to the increase in size of the airport. This is because most travelers find it convenient to stay near the airport rather than to look for hotel in far destinations.
In short, these factors have attracted many potential travelers to use Dallas International Airport. These hotels include: Holiday Inn Express DFW South, Holiday Inn DF South, Super 8 DFW Airport north/, Super 8 Grapevine /DFW Airport, Holiday Inn Express Airport North, HI Express DFW Grapevine, Grand Hyatt DFW and Hyatt Regency DFW.
Dallas international airport has also increased in size due to the easy accessibility of the airport by travelers. This is due to the availability of many means of transport. These means of transport that are available include: car, taxi, bus, train and van/ shuttle (Haifaa 20). Therefore, most of potential travelers prefer to use Dallas International Airport hence it ends up getting many customers hence high profit and developments.
The use of advanced technologies is another policy that the airport has implemented. The use of technologies has helped to realize the vision of an intelligent airport through which operational stability and efficiency can be enhanced and increase passengers’ satisfaction. Use of information kiosks in the airport has reduced confusion and wastage of time at the airport.
Establishment of efficient computerized technology in the Airport has made service faster and efficient at the airport and this has been another factor that has attracted many travelers resulting to high income, profit and development increase.
Despite the enormous accolades that have befallen the Dallas international airport, there exist numerous violations in regard to the econometrics classical regression model. The airport, like other airports around the world, has constantly faced various omissions in its database. At times, passengers entering and leaving the airport have faced some challenges in terms of maintaining the needed accuracy which has affected the classical model of regression. This possibility of an error in its database is yet to face a complete extinction and the Dallas airport has a task in hand for the classical regression model to remain relevant.
On other occasions, the airport has been faced by some errors in terms of its numerical calculations where the number of people boarding the planes or the average passengers who throng the airport either daily or yearly has been miscalculated (Pfister 103).
At times, the data is stored in its respective databases when all the passengers are yet to book or board the planes and other times, the average number of passengers has been overestimated and this has created some sort of inconveniences among its passengers with some expressing utter dissatisfaction.
The other type of violation that has faced the classical regression model is the fact that there are some unpredictable features that constantly affect the airport where at times, the airplanes entering the airport have faced an upsurge and the number of planes has exceeded the capacity that the airport is supposed to hold.
Unpredictable weather conditions have also caused the airport to face constant challenges in its operations with the data being sent to its respective website facing some sort of inconsistence. This has been a great violation to the model of the classical regression and to its existence at large.
Summary
Dallas/Fort worth International Airport is one of the largest employers the Dallas, Fort Worth metropolitan region. It is also a high and reliable source of important economic activities. Also, it is a significant source of resources and high consumer power within the surrounding hence advantageous as it plays a central role the area’s quality of life and economic viability.
The airport has been on the top line to control air emissions and improve energy efficiency. A recommendation is made for Dallas/ Fort Worth Airport to commit to be “Green Airport” and it’s getting a lot of financial support from the government and private sources to demonstrate the benefits of such a comprehensive program and to serve as an example to other airports.
Dallas International airport has also done a great thing in the employment sector since it has provided massive employment opportunities to the people living in the surrounding and those from far distances. This has helped to improve the living standards of people and also has led to economic growth of the two towns. Dallas international Airport offers the following job opportunities: Programmer/ System Analysts, IT Quality Assurance Analyst and Network specialist among others.
Conclusion
Dallas/Fort worth International Airport is a public airport and is the largest airport in Texas and the second largest in United States. It’s located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. It’s a very important airport since it serves international and domestic airlines. It’s located in 18,076 acres of land and it’s the tenth busiest international gateway the United States.
This airport was named the best cargo airport in the world in 2006 and it has five terminals known as terminal A, B, C, D, and E. The development of these terminals has been one of the greatest achievements of Dallas International Airport (Guldager 79). The forth terminal which is terminal D was established in 2005 and this terminal only serves international airlines while the others deal with domestic airlines.
This terminal helped to reduce congestion and time loss at the airport. The airport has served as an asset to the people living around the airport and to a greater extent the people living in other parts of the world who enjoy the services of this airport. It has helped the towns; that is, Dallas and Fort Worth to grow economically and also has facilitated establishment of other essential infrastructure. Dallas international airport has also proved as another great source of wealth to the state of Texas and United States in general.
Works Cited
Atkinson, Michael. Developing an airport performance. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008. Print.
Boyle, Ellexis. “Dallas/Fort worth international airport.” Journal of international airports 19. 2 (2010): 153-166. Print.
Bunsell, Tanya. Insider’s guide to Dalla & Fort worth 1. 2 (2009): 141-159. Print.
Guldager, Jørgensen. International Journal of airports Med 32. 1(2011): 60-65. Print.
Haifaa, Jawad. Airports in the Dallas- Fort worth Metroplex. London: Routledge, 2011. Print.
Hargreaves, Jennifer. North American airlines and airports. London: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Pfister, Gertrud. Airports in American states. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.