For years, the ‘worst airport gate in America’ was generally considered to be 35X at Washington’s Reagan National airport. There were competitors, like Miami’s D60 and the old D9 at LaGuardia before the terminal was redone. But 35X was the stuff of legend.
The gate is gone. The airport’s “Project Journey” included a new 14-gate regional concourse instead. They built an entire new concourse to replace one miserable gate. Gate 35X was a bus gate that served 14 remote stands for 50 seat regional jets. The new concourse, in contrast, supports 14 large regional jets.
There was signage for 35X, and that remains for posterity.
For those who remember — spotted in an undisclosed location. @MWAAHQ @Reagan_Airport pic.twitter.com/ATfI38mizD
— lori aratani (@loriara) December 19, 2024
Another old gate 35X sign, which then-American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said at the time of its teardown represented something that “looks like a gate but says ‘go down these steps and get on a bus and we’ll drive you out to an airplane’” reportedly sits in American’s government affairs office.
Nate Gatten, American’s Senior Vice President of Government Affairs, reported at the time that “someone on [his] team was supposed to drive over and pick it up.” It was being held in the Piedmont Airlines office at the airport but was later collected. He joked that it would eventually “go to the C.R. Smith Museum” in Dallas.
Parker said that he “heard about [the gate] a lot” in the form of complaints from Congressmen who live in small communities and were stuck using that gate all the time.
Gate 35X was originally gate 35A, the US Airways express gates, back in 1997. It actually remained 35A up until US Airways management took over American. It was renamed in 2014.
The airport was going to get rid of it 25 years earlier, building a new 9-gate regional jet concourse at a cost of just $16 million – instead of 14 gates for a billion dollars – but US Airways killed the idea.
You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead, so the best we can say about American’s Gate 35X is that it brought together the likes of Robert Mueller and Donald Trump, Jr. and no matter how powerful the politician they were all brought back down to earth by 35X.
@ Gary — You should have a replica made for your home office.
Gary,
35x wasn’t a pleasant experience, I agree. And your post here is focused on “worst gate in America” but did you find it worse than the god-awful bus boarding gates in Europe (FRA specifically comes to mind)?
Or if you fly into CGH, I’m fairly certain more than 50% of that airport boarding must be done via bus.
Per MIA’s D60… I guess I just have a soft spot for it. But I agree, it isn’t optimal but, at least, it isn’t a bus gate…
Even LHR T5 has a couple bus gates. Really, really sucked the first time your 10 hr international flight departed from one. I think they had air stairs as well (it’s been a while now). Equally bad to come in from from Seattle, flying overnight, to find you got a bus gate..
DCA was miserable to navigate. Lack of competent signage on Route 66, 110, municipal streets, terminal, garages, pre-concourse areas including the original wing of the airport which only houses a museum, and the active concourses.
Tons of quality restaurants though.
35X is better than the hard stands with buses required to offload passengers at various European airport gates, but fortunately it’s rare for me to get a hard stand at US airports where a bus is required.
The C. R. Smith museum is not in Dallas.
@Rusty Shackleford – I mean the ‘city of’ Fort Worth, sure, but it’s in the Dallas Metroplex
Gary, perhaps this is a little different but how about SEA? The terminal whose design specified being able to park a wide body at each gate but failed to specify sufficient spacing between gates so that wide bodies can be at adjacent gates concurrently.
I never considered it to be that bad. Sure, you had to pay attention that you were not boarding the wrong plane, and there was a scrum of people downstairs, but I never thought it was worse than the thoroughly disorganized experience of boarding an A380 at LHR T5C. I simply thought it was punishment for flying small planes to small towns.
Don’t worry it’s cousin MIA D60 gates live on seemingly forever.
The real crime was spending a Billion on a 14gate terminal wing. The airport authority shows no stewardship of the public funds.
The same authority spent billions on the tiny train at Dulles that was also a boondoggle.
Lots of corruption and insider dealing at MWAA.
Where is this airport? Never heard of an airport by that name.
I’d say the nicer part of the renovation is the new security configuration that allows for all concourses to be accessed without individual security lines, making transfers seamless, and adding the grand hall into the secure zone. Ditching 35X wouldn’t have been possible without it… Remember the bus between C and D for transfers? You’d have to have that between C, D, and E. I will say, E is a bit of a walk, especially with a carry on, and sometimes I wish there was a bus! At least they could get a tram or a pair of large golf carts.