Passengers make their way through the terminal as they travel ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S., November 22, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that his administration wants to overhaul Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., calling it "not a good airport."

In October, Trump's motorcade made an unscheduled drive through the airport property to assess future projects.

"We're also going to rebuild Dulles airport, because it's not a good airport. It should be a great airport. It's not a good airport at all," Trump said during a cabinet meeting at the White House. "They have a great building and a bad airport."

Trump said he has a new design for Dulles, which opened in 1962 and is owned by the federal government. Finnish architect Eero Saarinen designed the Terminal Building, a distinctive building with a sloping roof that sweeps up toward the sky on opposite sides.

Dulles, located in Virginia about 25 miles from the U.S. capital, is the primary international airport in the Washington area, serving about 27 million passengers a year. It is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. The airport is a major United Airlines hub.

The authority, which operates the airport under a 50-year lease approved by Congress, declined to comment.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the department plans to announce it is seeking requests for bids to replace the shuttle vehicles, called "mobile lounges," that transport passengers between the terminal and planes.

Two separate collisions in November involving the mobile lounges drew attention to the system.

In July, the airport authority approved a master plan to expand the airport to 38 million passengers in 2030 and 45 million passengers and 154 gates by 2045 and to eventually be able to serve 90 million passengers and 218 gates. The airport currently has 130 gates.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Doina Chiacu and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Leslie Adler)