Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (IATA: DFW, ICAO: KDFW, FAA LID: DFW) is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas region, in the U.S. state of Texas.

American Airlines and Braniff Airways struck a deal with the city of Arlington to build an airport there, but the governments of Dallas and Fort Worth disagreed over its construction and the project was abandoned in 1942.

After World War II, Fort Worth annexed the site and developed it into Amon Carter Field[12] with the help of American Airlines.

In 1953, Fort Worth transferred its commercial flights from Meacham to the new airport, which was 12 miles (19 km) from Love Field.

By the mid-1960s, Fort Worth was getting 1% of Texas air traffic while Dallas was getting 49%, which led to the virtual abandonment of GSW.

While airline service had steeply declined at both GSW and Meacham, Love Field was congested and had no more room to expand.

[17][18] DFW held an open house and dedication ceremony on September 20–23, 1973, which included the first landing of a supersonic Concorde in the United States, an Air France aircraft en route from Caracas to Paris.

[16] The attendees at the airport's dedication included former Texas Governor John Connally, Transportation Secretary Claude Brinegar, U.S.

An innovative feature of the airport during its early history was the Vought Airtrans, the world's first operational fully automated people mover system.

Later rebranded as the Airport Train and then the TrAAin ("AA" signifying American Airlines), the system ultimately encompassed 13 mi (21 km) of fixed guideways and transported as many as 23,000 persons per day at a maximum speed of 17 mph (27 km/h).

Local officials feared that the resumption of long-distance flights at Love would threaten DFW's financial stability, prompting the enaction of the Wright Amendment in 1979, which banned airliners with more than 56 seats from operating between Love Field and airports beyond Texas and its four neighboring states: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.

Terminal D, built for international flights, and DFW Skylink, a modern bidirectional people mover system, opened in 2005.

[36][37] The remaining Airport Train system, which had been mostly replaced by buses in 2003, had been fully decommissioned weeks earlier.

[22] The largest commercial aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380, made its inaugural arrival at DFW in September 2014 and was handled at Terminal D.[38] From 2004 to 2012, DFW was one of two US Army "Personnel Assistance Points" that received US troops returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for rest and recuperation.

This ended on March 14, 2012, leaving Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport as the sole Personnel Assistance Point.

This broke Southwest's monopoly at Love Field, threatened highly profitable American Airlines routes at DFW, and proved that changes to the amendment were now politically viable.

Senator from Texas,[43] DFW Airport, Dallas, Fort Worth, Southwest, and American agreed to mutually support the repeal, but with a number of conditions.

[25][45] On October 13, 2014, the Wright Amendment domestic flight restrictions ended, allowing airlines to fly from Love Field to anywhere in the U.S.[46][47] Despite the increased local competition, the number of annual enplanements at DFW grew by five million from 2013 to 2015, only slightly less than an approximately six million passenger increase at Love Field during the same period.

In early 2023, Frontier Airlines[N 1] established a crew operating base at DFW and added a gate to accommodate additional flights.

[7] DFW's terminals are designed in a half-circle shape, which minimizes the distance between a passenger's car and airplane, and to reduce traffic on main airport roads.

It originally had an identical twin west wing, located on the opposite side of International Parkway, which was built in 1974 and demolished for construction of Terminal D.[60] It has 811 rooms, 92,000 square feet (8,500 m2) of meeting space and four food and beverage outlets.

[61][62] The Grand Hyatt DFW opened on July 1, 2005[63] and has 298 rooms, 34,000 square feet (3,200 m2) of meeting space and three food and beverage outlets.

Bus routes serving the airport are operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and Trinity Metro.

[66] This provides direct rail service on the Orange Line to Dallas and Las Colinas (with a later extension to DFW Airport North station).

A consolidated rental car facility is located at the south end of the airport and connected to all terminals by a dedicated network of shuttle buses.

[77] As part of the perimeter taxiway project, Founders' Plaza was closed in 2007 and moved to a new location surrounding a 50-foot (15 m)-tall beacon on the north side of the airport in 2008.

The 6-acre (2.4 ha) plaza features a granite monument and sculpture, post-mounted binoculars, piped-in voices of air traffic controllers and shade pavilions.