In this holiday special edition of The Capital Runway podcast, Amanda and Charles discusses the top highlights and milestones from 2023 at both DCA and IAD airports. We had a big year - tune in for our year in review! If you missed any of the other episodes, this one is a must-listen. Don't miss the bloopers at the end!
Welcome to the final episode of The Capital Runway podcast for the year! Join your hosts Amanda and Charles as they take a nostalgic journey through the top highlights of 2023 at both Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Thank you for making us a part of your journey across the sky in 2023.
*IAD 2023 holiday guide: https://www.flydulles.com/2023-holiday-travel-guide-
*DCA 2023 holiday guide: https://www.flyreagan.com/2023-holiday-travel-guide-dca
*Learn what items can be packed in your carry-on or checked baggage: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/all
Have questions for us? We'd love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@thecapitalrunway.com
For more information, please visit our website at https://thecapitalrunway.com.
Staff:
Tanisha Lewis, VP of DISI
Jaimini Erskine, VP of Marketing & Concessions
Charles Wilson, Co-host/Co-producer
Amanda Ohbayashi, Co-host/Co-producer/Social media producer
Ryan Burdick, Editor/Co-producer
Bong Lee, Graphics
Brian McCoy, Digital Strategy/Co-producer
Sagia Depty, Marketing Lead/Co-producer
Adam Lawrence, Web producer
[music]
[00:00:04] Amanda: Welcome back to The Capital Runway podcast special holiday edition, I'm Amanda.
[00:00:09] Charles: I'm Charles, and welcome to The Capital Runway podcast.
[00:00:13] Amanda: How are you doing, Charles?
[00:00:14] Charles: I'm doing great. Happy holidays.
[00:00:16] Amanda: Happy holidays.
[00:00:17] Charles: Can you believe the year is coming to an end?
[00:00:19] Amanda: I cannot. It has been a very busy year for us.
[00:00:23] Charles: Yes. What do you got a plan for the remainder of the year?
[00:00:29] Amanda: I'm taking some time just hanging out with family, relaxing, just enjoying-
[00:00:36] Charles: Are you going to be in town?
[00:00:37] Amanda: -the holiday. I will be in New Jersey.
[00:00:40] Charles: Okay. All right.
[00:00:41] Amanda: Yes.
[00:00:42] Charles: All right. I'll be here with family. Definitely, looking forward to eating well, watching some football and basketball games with the family and just taking it easy, just unplugging it a little bit-
[00:00:54] Amanda: Absolutely.
[00:00:55] Charles: -and getting ready for 2024. Can you believe that?
[00:00:57] Amanda: Oh, my goodness.
[00:00:58] Charles: 2024.
[00:00:59] Amanda: Before we talk about 2024, let's talk about all of the things that we did in 2023.
[00:01:05] Charles: That's a long list, Amanda. That's a long list.
[00:01:08] Amanda: Yes, what are some of your highlights from 2023?
[00:01:13] Charles: Wow, there are many. I have to start, I'm really excited that we actually launched The Capital Runway podcast, and we are on our ninth episode, can you believe that?
[00:01:22] Amanda: I know, it's so cool. It's something we had talked about doing for so long. The fact that we finally got it off the ground, no pun intended, is really great.
[00:01:33] Charles: All the things that we do, and we're excited about all the folks that tune into the podcast-
[00:01:38] Amanda: Absolutely.
[00:01:39] Charles: - and listen to us each and every month. I even understand we have listeners overseas.
[00:01:44] Amanda: We do.
[00:01:45] Charles: Yes, so as far as where?
[00:01:47] Amanda: Well, shout out to Japan. My dad is an active listener over there. That's fun.
[00:01:53] Charles: He's building our listenership out there.
[00:01:57] Amanda: For international.
[00:01:58] Charles: Yes [chuckles]
[00:01:59] Amanda: We have other countries too, but Japan is number two.
[00:02:01] Charles: That's been definitely one of the highlights. I'm sure there are many more that you can share as well.
[00:02:07] Amanda: For me, it's just been so fun to watch passengers come back to the airport after we had a few rough years there. I think we can all agree it's just been great seeing both passengers and airlines come back. We had eight new airlines join us at Dulles this year, including Norse, and ITA, and Play, which is really great. I think between DCA and Dulles, we had 18 new routes launched. Over at DCA, we had Cedar Rapids, we brought back Fort Lauderdale, and I believe we have Wichita launching in January. That will be really exciting. People can spend weekends in Wichita if they want.
[00:02:57] Charles: It's funny, I was talking to my wife last week in the car. She was like, "Yes, there's this new airline called Play Airlines that flies to Iceland. We should think about it". I was like, "Yes, I know." She was like, "Well, how did you know?" I was like, "I did a podcast on it." [laughs]
[00:03:09] Amanda: Nonstop, nonstop. On a bright big, beautiful red plane. I love seeing that plane. It's so pretty.
[00:03:15] Charles: We're looking at possibly making that trip in February, so we'll see.
[00:03:19] Amanda: Can you see the Northern Lights there in February?
[00:03:22] Charles: I don't know, but I think we want to find somewhere to go.
[00:03:26] Amanda: It's a bucket list item for me seeing the Northern Lights. Other big things that happened over at Dulles, we launched the new Capital One lounge.
[00:03:34] Charles: Yes, that was a cool launch.
[00:03:35] Amanda: I don't know, have you gotten a chance to go inside?
[00:03:37] Charles: I did. I was there for the grand opening.
[00:03:39] Amanda: Beautiful. Really good food items.
[00:03:42] Charles: Yes. Eclectic mix of food.
[00:03:44] Amanda: I really like how they really incorporated the Eero Saarinen architecture, and vibe into it. It all really fits seamlessly into the airport design. I know Capital One is really intentional about their designs, especially in their lounges and at other airports. It was really cool to see that.
[00:04:04] Charles: Yes, it was a lot of fun. Definitely excited about that addition to the airport.
[00:04:09] Amanda: Then over at DCA, we opened P. F. Chang's.
[00:04:12] Charles: My favorites. Yes, my favorite. As a team, we go there at least once a month just to check it out.
[00:04:18] Amanda: Oh my goodness. Wow. People love P. F. Chang's. What's not to love?
[00:04:21] Charles: Yes. It's a great location. Just plenty of seating, and the service is great.
[00:04:28] Amanda: It's right in the newest concourse. It really looks out at all that big, beautiful open space. We also introduced walkout technology with the goods over at DCA, so you can just scan your hand and then you can grab and go. It's really cool.
[00:04:46] Charles: That's a cool store.
[00:04:47] Amanda: I haven't had an opportunity to try it yet, but I'm very curious.
[00:04:51] Charles: Do you know they sell books, too?
[00:04:52] Amanda: Really?
[00:04:53] Charles: Yes, they sell books.
[00:04:54] Amanda: They sell MahoganyBooks, correct?
[00:04:57] Charles: Yes.
[00:04:57] Amanda: They have a partnership with them. That's really cool.
[00:04:59] Charles: Yes, so MahoganyBooks is a local Black-owned business, actually started here in the District of Columbia.
[00:05:04] Amanda: Oh, wow.
[00:05:05] Charles: They've since expanded and now their new location is here at the airport.
[00:05:10] Amanda: That's awesome.
[00:05:10] Charles: It's a great stop. If you're here at the airport, definitely check it out.
[00:05:13] Amanda: Yes. For sure.
[00:05:16] Charles: One of the many other things that we are excited about. There was a lot of blank wall space in the airports and we decided to be creative and created a youth art walk-
[00:05:27] Amanda: Oh, yes.
[00:05:27] Charles: -where we actually are showcasing artwork from area high school students on the walls here at DCA or IAD. When you see passengers walk through the halls and they stop and they take pictures with their phones, it's like, yes. That was a great impact to see not only the students but their parents, their principals and administrators, and to get TV coverage. It was a great event that we had held.
[00:05:52] Amanda: Is this artwork going to rotate out?
[00:05:55] Charles: Yes. We're planning on rotating the art workout next month actually in preparation for Black History Month.
[00:06:02] Amanda: Oh. Very cool.
[00:06:03] Charles: Yes. We're really excited about that. We're going to have another big event where the parents and students and teachers can come and just celebrate the students' achievements. It's a great experience so we look forward to it.
[00:06:17] Amanda: Where can passengers find these art walks?
[00:06:19] Charles: At DCA, it's between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. It's a long walkway. You can't miss it. Once you're walking from the historic terminal to the new one, you'll definitely run into it. Then at IAD, it's in the main terminal as well.
[00:06:36] Amanda: Cool. What else? What else?
[00:06:39] Charles: Another great feel-good event that we hosted last year, we held a workforce development expo again for area high school students because we understood that when folks graduate from high school, not everyone wants to go to college, but they can still start a successful career here at the airport.
We had over 120 high school students from both DC and Virginia come to the airport and learn about careers available to them at the airport. They were able to talk to the firefighters, the police officers, the maintenance professionals here at the airport and just learn about all the different aspects on how they can start their career here at the airport. It was another great event. Again, got a lot of great TV coverage. You know it's great when the students at the end of the day they all say "Thank you, this was great." They really appreciate it.
[00:07:32] Amanda: Impressing teenagers is a big accomplishment.
[laughter]
[00:07:35] Charles: Spending all day with them is a big accomplishment as well.
[laughter]
What else? I can't forget all the supplier diversity events that we've held. When most folks think of the airport, they just think about, "This is where I buy a plane ticket, rent a car, and get on a plane and go to my destination," but the airport is a big business and there are a lot of procurement opportunities available to small businesses to take advantage of the airport. We held, I believe, over 14 supplier diversity events at the airport-
[00:08:03] Amanda: Wow.
[00:08:04] Charles: -where small businesses from the area could come in and learn about the procurement opportunities available to them. Of course, we're building a big terminal at Dulles Airport and so we hosted a number of events with Turner Construction to talk to small businesses about opportunities available.
[00:08:22] Amanda: Wow. I know that people are really looking forward to seeing that new concourse at Dulles.
[00:08:28] Charles: Yes. It's going to be a great addition to the airport. There's another airport-wide accomplishment. We published a CSR report.
[00:08:35] Amanda: Oh, yes.
[00:08:35] Charles: Corporate Social Responsibility report. It highlights all the achievements. It highlights all the work that we've done. You can find that on our website. We're looking forward to the next year's report as well.
[00:08:49] Amanda: It's a huge report that takes a lot of time and effort from everybody at the authority so it's always really great to look through.
[00:08:59] Charles: Last year's report was 98 pages.
[00:09:01] Amanda: Wow.
[00:09:02] Charles: If you want good reading, got a long flight, you can take a look, but we also have a shortened version if you want a quick reading, quick highlights.
[00:09:11] Amanda: Let's see. What else can we talk about? Let's talk about 2024. We did so much in 2023, but we have so much more planned for 2024, specifically DCA Reimagined. We're going to get some new soft seating over at the airport, and then also some new bathrooms which is exciting. Everybody loves a pretty bathroom. I don't know. When you walk into a bathroom you're like, "Oh, okay. This is nice."
[00:09:37] Charles: I've seen the new ones that we already have, and it's like, "Wow, this is an upgrade."
[00:09:43] Amanda: Then as far as new airlines coming, we have Aeroméxico joining us and Swiss over at Dulles. Super excited for both of those options.
[00:09:52] Charles: Did you talk about the new American Express lounge coming?
[00:09:55] Amanda: Yes. That is also coming. I think that has been long awaited so people are thrilled. We can't wait to get that open.
[00:10:03] Charles: Now where is that going to be located, do you know?
[00:10:04] Amanda: It's going to be on the south end of National Hall. It's post-security and it will be accessible near the B Gates, I believe.
[00:10:14] Charles: It's really exciting. I know we got a couple of new restaurants coming?
[00:10:18] Amanda: Yes.
[00:10:19] Charles: I love restaurant options though.
[00:10:21] Amanda: Oh, my goodness. Me too. At DCA, we have Atlas Brew Works, Zeke's Coffee, Compass Coffee. We have a new taco place called Dos Toros Taqueria, Half Moon Empanadas, and a second Cava Meza Grill because the first one is so popular.
[00:10:39] Charles: Now, you have to refresh my memory, but I was walking through the terminal the other day and I saw there's a new hamburger place coming.
[00:10:46] Amanda: Lucky Buns.
[00:10:47] Charles: Yes. I keep hearing about this Lucky Buns.
[00:10:49] Amanda: I love Lucky Buns. They have a shop over in Union Market and it's really good.
[00:10:53] Charles: I heard it's definitely something to look forward to. It'll be on my lunch list. Our team has already been talking about it, so once it opens we'll be there.
[00:11:04] Amanda: Over at Dulles, we have Sfoglina Restaurant and Rappahannock Oyster Company. There's going to be a new Potbelly at Gatsby, which a fun restaurant over in the Navy yard. We have Auntie Anne's coming and a grab-and-go from Union Kitchen.
[00:11:22] Charles: Sandwiches and pretzels. You can't go wrong with either one of those.
[00:11:25] Amanda: Also at Dulles this year already opened, we opened up a Cava and a Rusty Taco. Both of those options are delicious.
[00:11:33] Charles: Awesome. I know our passengers are really enjoying that.
[00:11:35] Amanda: Yes, so many new options. Love it.
[00:11:38] Charles: Do you want to talk about the podcast? What was your favorite moment or favorite episode?
[00:11:43] Amanda: My favorite episode? That's a really good question. My favorite episode, I think-- I loved all of the episodes, of course. I really enjoyed when we talked to Janine Shaw over at Dulles Ops, one of the duty managers out there. She has so much information and such great experience. My favorite moment was when she talked about her favorite moments or, I guess happy place. That's when she's driving out on the airfield.
[00:12:12] Janine Shaw: To get into a car and just drive around the runways, the taxiways, and get up close to that aircraft that has arrived and see the airlines operating or the different facets of the airport is probably my other happy place. It's exciting when you're out there.
[00:12:34] Amanda: I also find that to be the coolest part of the job. I love being able to get in the car with the drivers. I do not drive on the airport. I love just driving around and seeing all the planes up close, whether you're going to watch some planes take off or land, or if you're lucky enough to be in the car that drives behind the A380 as it takes off. It's such a cool opportunity that not many people get and it really makes you think this is a cool place to be.
[00:13:05] Charles: You really don't realize how big the runways are until you're out there. It's like, "Wow, this airport is huge."
[00:13:13] Amanda: Not only that, you don't realize how big some of the airplanes are. Once you're in the airplane and all, they all kind of feel the same. When you see some of them next to others, you're like, "Oh, that plane is much smaller than this other plane."
[00:13:27] Charles: It was really cool to see them land and take off in person up close.
[00:13:32] Amanda: Absolutely.
[00:13:33] Charles: It's a totally different experience.
[00:13:36] Amanda: One thing we did this year is that we brought back our AvGeek Tours. Those are opportunities for the public to join us at the airport for a special tour of the airport and the airfield. We take them around to a bunch of different places, including the fire station, the AeroTrain maintenance facility, airport operations. Then we also try and take them out to the airfield where they can get an opportunity to watch planes take off and land for a few minutes. That's a really fun part of the summer that we do.
[00:14:10] Charles: Now, if somebody's listening and wants to participate in the tour next year, how do they find out?
[00:14:15] Amanda: The best way is to follow us on social. It's Dulles_Airport. That's where we announce most of our AvGeek Tours. We give people a little bit of a heads-up, but we do have very limited space. It's really first come, first serve, and they sell out quite quickly. It's a free event, but it's a ticketed event.
[00:14:38] Charles: All right. Great.
[00:14:40] Amanda: What are some of your favorite moments from this year, Charles?
[00:14:42] Charles: I actually have two. One of the conversations I really enjoyed was Scott Cooper.
[00:14:46] Amanda: Oh, yes.
[00:14:48] Charles: Hearing him talk about all that goes into bringing an airline to the airport. Most folks just think the airplane just shows up, but there's so much more to that conversation before you can actually buy your ticket.
[00:15:01] Scott Cooper: We actually make it fun. We actually take the Excel data that we get from various sources and put it into PowerPoints and we actually tell a story to Airlines on why they should be flying to Dallas. I think that does take time to build, we actually work on those business cases for meetings with network planners at their headquarter locations, as well as with these routes conferences that are throughout the year. I think my day in the life, if you will, is a lot of reading, and a lot of researching, and a lot of building presentations and pitches to eventually give these airlines.
[00:15:32] Amanda: You could just hear the enthusiasm in his voice for what he does, and his passion for aviation and airlines. That was a really fun conversation.
[00:15:41] Charles: Then the other one was this Robin Wade labor relations and her talking about the apprenticeship program, and actually having the apprentices actually come in and tell their story.
[00:15:53] Gregory Ofsted: Hello, I'm Gregory Ofsted. I'm a carpenter apprentice, and I'm coming up on my end of my first year, August 1st. Jonathan here is actually a friend of mine from high school. We went to the same high school together. He was in it. He actually told me about it, and when they had openings up, so that's how I found out.
[00:16:11] Jonathan Vieira: My name is Jonathan Vieira, I'm part of the exterior lights trick shop, and I am entering my third year of apprenticeship. I discovered the apprenticeship program through community college I was going at Prince George's Community College at the time when my coordinator introduced the program to me. I was very interested. At that time, I didn't have the experience, I just had started the courses in Electrical 1. I thought it was a great opportunity to actually join the apprenticeship program. I saw everything it had to offer. I took my chance and we're here.
[00:16:49] Charles: Like, have successful careers here at the airport. Learning the trades on how to make the airport run.
[00:16:56] Amanda: Yes, something that Jack talked about in our very first episode was how airports are really like little cities. There are so much that goes on behind the scenes and different people doing different jobs, and it all has to work together. That is so true in my opinion.
[00:17:16] Robin Wade: The thing that shocks people is when you say, "We have 25,000 people who work at our airports." They don't think of 25,000 people, that's a lot of people, what's their roles? How does this thing operate? When you think about how complex the team is to run an aviation business, certainly it's all 1700 workers, but it's also the 1000s of folks who work for the federal government. Whether that's in customs, or work with TSA, whether it's the baggage handlers, the custodians, the bus drivers.
It takes an army to really pull this thing off and it takes people working for different entities, but acting as one team to pull it off because unless you work as one team, it won't be a seamless experience for a customer. It won't be a good experience for a customer. I think that's the thing that surprised them. There's no one entity that runs an airport. It's multiple entities that do it. It's very, very complex. There's a bevy of activity that happens below the surface. It's this group of people that make that experience a good one.
[00:18:27] Amanda: Even people who don't work necessarily at the airport, they're working over here as CHQ, everyone has an important job to play and a role to play just to make sure that those planes take off.
[00:18:38] Charles: Yes, but the great thing about these podcasts is that when we're talking to our guests, you can tell they really love what they do. Whether it's airport operations, whether it's an apprentice, or whether it's a concessionaire, everybody is really passionate about what they do. They're excited to tell their story to maybe inspire somebody else.
[00:19:01] Amanda: Absolutely. How lucky are we that we get to have these people on and talk to them? I think that's a great part of our job.
[00:19:07] Charles: Yes, I love it.
[laughter]
[00:19:10] Amanda: Well, until next time, thank you all for listening to the Capital Runway. We also want to give a special shout-out to our behind-the-scenes man, Ryan. He's always there editing and listening and he does such a great job for us, so we just want to give you a special thanks, Ryan.
[00:19:27] Charles: Yes, he makes us sound good.
[00:19:28] Amanda: He really does. Are you sure because I felt like I repeated myself a couple of times.
[00:19:33] Charles: No.
[00:19:34] Speaker 8: It does get edited.
[00:19:36] Amanda: Good.
[00:19:38] Charles: What attracted you to aviation business? See.
[00:19:42] Speaker 9: There we go.
[laughter]
[00:19:44] Amanda: You're one of the first-- Wait, what is it? I've already forgotten.
[00:19:48] Speaker 9: You're one of the first elected.
[00:19:49] Amanda: Elected. You're one of the first elected Latinos in the state of Virginia.
[00:19:55] Charles: What's going on? [unintelligible 00:19:56]
[00:19:59] Amanda: Oh, did I get my title?
[00:20:01] Charles: They should have self-checkout.
[00:20:02] Amanda: What is this?
[00:20:03] Charles: What is this? What's going on here? What actually is-- Did you hear that pen?
[00:20:08] Speaker 9: No.
[00:20:08] Charles: Okay.
[00:20:09] Amanda: What do we have going on for 2024?
[00:20:11] Charles: Oh, so much, but I don't think we're done with 2023 yet.
[00:20:15] Amanda: Oh, okay. We are still talking about 2023. Yes, we have definitely had our fair share of bloopers on this podcast.
[00:20:20] Charles: Yes, we have. [laughs]
[00:20:22] Amanda: Well with that, that is a wrap for us. We want to wish you all a very happy holiday and restful holiday.
[00:20:32] Charles: Yes, and we'll see you in 2024.
[00:20:34] Amanda: See you then.
[00:20:35] Charles: Looking forward to a great year.
[00:20:36] Amanda: Yes.
[00:20:52] [END OF AUDIO]