Qualla: Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. On June 7, 1987, the federal government handed off two of the busiest airports in America to an entity that did not technically belong to any state or city. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority - a creation of Virginia, the District of Columbia, and an act of Congress that Ronald Reagan had signed the previous year - took control of Washington National and Dulles International under a 50-year lease. The U.S. government still owned the land. The Federal Aviation Administration had run the airports for forty years. Now an independent authority would manage them, fund them through landing fees and concessions, and answer to a board appointed by Virginia, Maryland, the District, and the President himself. The arrangement was unusual: an airport authority funded by no taxpayer money, governed by a multi-state board, leasing federal land that the federal government had never wanted to run as a business. It worked. Forty years later, the authority manages everything from concession revenue to its own police force, its own fire department, and a 23-mile Metro line.

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: Reagan's Signature

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the mid-1980s, the federal government was looking for a way out of the airport business. The FAA had operated Washington National since the airport opened in 1941 and Dulles since 1962. Neither airport had been treated as a federal priority for capital improvements, and both w...

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: Self-Funded by Design

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. MWAA's structure was deliberately built to operate without federal appropriations. Daily airport operations, central administration, the police and fire departments, and the payroll are funded through aircraft landing fees, concessions, parking revenue, and rents charged for term...

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: The Silver Line Takeover

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2008, the authority's responsibilities expanded dramatically. The Commonwealth of Virginia handed over operation of the Dulles Toll Road - State Route 267 - and tasked MWAA with managing the long-stalled project to extend the Washington Metro from East Falls Church to Dulles A...

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: The Access Road's Mystery

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. The lease MWAA holds includes the right-of-way of the Dulles Airport Access Road - the highway built in the early 1960s to connect the new airport to Washington. It was always meant to serve airport traffic only. The inner lanes of State Route 267 remain free and exclusively for ...

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority: First on September 11

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BrayLockBoy, CC BY-SA 4.0. MWAA runs its own state-accredited police department, with jurisdiction over both airports, the Dulles Access Road, the Toll Road, and a 300-yard buffer around each airport. The Virginia State Police, Fairfax County Police, Loudoun County Sheriff, and Arlington County Police all ...

Image: BrayLockBoy | CC BY-SA 4.0