Over 200,000 Travelers and 1,800 Flights: A Day in the Life of DFW International Airport

At the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is a massive economic driver that can be described in one word: nonstop.

There’s never a day off at DFW International Airport. Flying in and out of the Texas airport presents opportunities some travelers may have never experienced, like spending time at a spa during a long layover or browsing over 100 retail locations. In five terminals, filled not only with shops but 131 restaurants and bars, there’s an option for someone passing through or sticking around.

The second-busiest airport in the world, consisting of 17,183 acres or 26.9 square miles, shuffles about 200,000 travelers a day to their destinations, almost anywhere across the country or to an exciting international destination. The 60,000 daily workers are keeping up with the over 73 million passengers travelers and 656,676 flights that took off and landed at DFW in 2022.

As DFW Airport prepares to celebrate its 50th year in operation, The Dallas Morning News took a 24-hour look at the people who are tasked with the upkeep of one of the busiest airports in the world.

Bright and early

Long before the sun rises, early bird travelers might see Daniel Tays, a transportation security officer at DFW Airport for four years, checking identification cards. He’s one of about 12 officers, depending on how many lanes are open, at any of DFW’s 15 checkpoints. Checkpoint C21 is the first to open at 3 a.m. and TSA won’t see their peak rush until mid-morning and later in the afternoon.

As you maneuver through the line, Cynthia Phillips, another TSA officer, is telling travelers, “Take out your laptops, cellphones and electronic devices.” At 7 a.m., the security starts to pick up.

“Passengers can be sleepy,” Phillips, a 10-year TSA veteran, said. “I mean, I’m a morning person.”

Another TSA agent is running the computer screen behind the large machine that all carry-on items go through, making sure there’s nothing that can put the public or airline and airport staff in harm’s way. It takes 10 to 15 seconds to scan a bag. If it’s over-packed, it might take 30 seconds.

They rotate every 30 minutes to make sure a fresh set of eyes are in each spot. TSA knows how busy one terminal might be based on flight schedules, so the agency plans ahead to make sure each checkpoint is staffed properly.

“Planning is key and having that information ahead of time about what to anticipate,” said Kriste Jordan Smith, TSA federal security director. “Our communication with our partners is key to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

Around the same time TSA is starting their morning, workers at DFW’s catering facilities are beginning their shifts. Over 11,000 meals are prepared each day at American’s catering kitchen, a seven-minute drive on the outskirts of the airport.

Tim McMahan, managing director of inflight dining and service at American, says the morning starts with prep work for meals on flights, close to 15,000 during the busiest flying times. American is partnered with LSG Sky Chefs, which also serves other airlines.

There are machines that wash flight attendant beverage carts and a robot that sorts soda cans into trays, nearly 200,000 a day. Some 800 LSG employees prepare food, cook, run machinery and build carts so they can be driven out on trucks to the airfield for the next flight. It’s all done in American’s new $100 million, 214,000-square-foot catering facility, about the size of three football fields.

“So much has changed,” McMahan said. “When you talk about a facility like this, it is all about technology, efficiency and innovation. When it comes to food perspective, it’s about convenience. It’s about consistency. It’s about giving our customers what they value.”

Getting started

At a facility 10 minutes from the terminals, DFW Airport police officers assemble at the Department of Public Safety headquarters, crowding in a room, holding tall energy drinks, hot office coffee and Mountain Dew.

At 6:15 a.m., the airport’s Department of Public Safety officers hold a daily briefing, going one by one through the terminals. There are 133 police officers at DFW Airport and 53 police recruits, sergeants and lieutenants, working shifts that vary by assignment.

Officer Gary Goodson drives about 150 miles a day in his car marked “DFW Airport police.” His route includes the business district of the airport, where Amazon and other retailers have warehouses. Goodson has been with the department for 23 years.

It’s a lot of traffic stops, sometimes thefts or even helping passengers get to where they need to be, he said. And that’s around the clock, no matter the time. But the largest change in the last 23 years has been how much the airport has grown.

“There’s so much business I would say in the last 10 years, that it’s just amazing how fast that it can grow,” Goodson said.

At one of DFW Airport’s six fire stations, David Mosely, a fire service captain of 20 years, is with other fire and emergency medical services workers awaiting a call. On average, the fire and EMS crew responds to 20 to 30 calls per day at Fire Station 5, where Mosely works. With aircraft landing from long flights constantly, the most common call is a sick passenger in need of medical attention, followed by traffic accidents or small fires.

Mosely described most passengers’ feelings as nausea from the aircraft, which may cause a traveler to pass out.

“Usually, all of their symptoms resolve as soon as they wake back up,” he said.

Nonetheless, the team will pull the passenger off to the side of a gate after landing, and immediately provide medical attention. Once the traveler feels better, it’s off to the next call. There are 172 fire-commissioned workers at DFW Airport.

Travelers takeoff

By midmorning, most stores have begun to open and patrons are sitting, waiting for their next flight. At 5 a.m., commercial flights begin to take off and much of the airport’s cargo business has landed or left for its next stop.

The morning starts a rush of calls between managers and the airport to make sure operations are ready.

DFW is the busiest hub for Fort Worth-based American Airlines, which flies about 815 outgoing flights a day.

That’s why it’s important to get the first 130 or so flights out before 9 a.m., said Jim Kriksciun, managing director of American’s Hub Control Center.

“If you start the day out with your first flight of the day delayed, then it just goes out and back, all day long, delayed,” Kriksciun said.

The early flights are called “right starts.” American watches flights in nine banks per day, meaning a group of flights that go out at a specific time. The first two banks are the carrier’s “right start” banks of flights, Kriksciun said.

Mornings are critical for a carrier like American to prepare for a day’s worth of travelers. There are also no days off for the hub, despite getting that “right start” to the morning. Throughout the morning, it’s a combination of meetings that include talking to the airport or other entities to ensure the operation runs smoothly.

A nonstop business

DFW Airport services 193 domestic and 67 international nonstop destinations worldwide, according to its website. Throughout the year, 19 cargo airlines and 28 passenger airlines will operate at DFW.

By afternoon, the airport is filled with the sounds of passenger chatter, taped welcome messages from Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, and the zips of carts transporting passengers from one gate to another.

For DFW customer service workers, it’s all about the upkeep. Chairs in the terminals are scanned for damage. Bathrooms are checked each hour for cleanliness.

Clara Meyer, terminal experience supervisor at DFW Airport, monitors Terminal D. Meyer and her team are coordinating with the airlines, the airport and government agencies, working in unison to keep the operation running.

“The key to [a successful day] is matching the volume for the carrier throughout the day,” Meyer, a 15-year DFW Airport veteran, said.

Customer service workers walk around DFW’s five terminals with 171 gates with “pickers,” grabbing crumbled-up boarding passes, candy wrappers or other debris. They might even be the ones pointing you in the direction of your flight or to your airline’s customer service counter.

But it’s not just people that are working to keep the airport up and running. There are dogs, too.

DFW is home to some of the country’s beagle brigade, eager canines using their noses to ensure all bags that enter the country don’t have illegal substances or foods.

Hard at work is Merla, a 4-year-old beagle partnered with her handler who works throughout the terminals. Merla puts her nose down into each bag as it glides out of the luggage belt. If she smells something, that something being citrus, apple, mango, beef or pork, she alerts her handler.

“[The conveyor belt] provides a really good opportunity for the dog to screen everything because it’s moving,” said Ginger Herrell-Lopez, chief agriculture specialist with Customs and Border Protection for the Area Port of Dallas.

The beagles are typically in Terminal D as international flights come into DFW, but can randomly scan other areas of the airport.

While the beagles are hard at work, so is the cargo side of Customs and Border Protection. The cargo facility is monitoring large shipments to track for any counterfeit items.

Jayson Ahern, area port director for the Area Port of Dallas, said as DFW continues to grow, so will Customs and Border Protection.

“We’re fairly confident, from an agency standpoint, that we’ll be able to always meet the demand of international travel,” Ahern said.

Alongside the day-to-day operations of Customs and Border Protection, there are other dogs working in other parts of DFW.

Dusan, a 7-year-old German shorthaired pointer, and his handler, Kevin Farren will screen randomly at TSA checkpoints. When dogs are in the security line, passengers don’t need to remove electronics or their shoes.

The brain of the airport is DFW’s integrated operations center, which has employees from TSA, CBP, gate coordinators, communications and more in the room, monitoring baggage, foot traffic in the terminals and security. The walls are lined with real-time displays surveilling different parts of DFW’s interior. The center is watching the airport’s every move.

No other facilities are like DFW’s in the country, according to Julie Schreacke, bridge manager at the integrated operations center. Schreacke has been with the airport for 12 years. It puts all of the key players of the airport in one room, in case there’s a situation that needs to be addressed, big or small.

“We’re able actually to just walk over, ask what’s needed and ask for more information, gather more information,” Schreacke said. “It significantly speeds up that progress and the communication a lot. We gain a lot from that.”

Tom Smith, another bridge manager at the integrated operations center for over 31 years, considers the center the “signal corps,” similar to the U.S. Army.

“We gather the information and we send it out to the other departments so that they can be able to make decisions based on what’s going on,” Smith said. “This is 24/7.”

The wind-down

As the sun sets on the runway, passengers wait to catch a red-eye flight, grab a late bite and listen as cargo flights rumble along the runway for takeoffs and landings.

Mark Matthews, general manager of DFW cargo operations at American, is directing transports for airplane parts, consumer goods, fresh salmon and even empty coffins to customers from all over the world.

Sometimes those coffins may have remains in them, about 30 a day, being sent to labs or to loved ones. The cargo facility also honors veterans who died through an “honor guard” which is a group of volunteer team members that support special transfers. Family members are allowed to view the honorary transfer.

“We’re averaging about 750,000 pounds a day of cargo at DFW,” Matthews said. “When I look at the top 10 days of 2023, all of them happened within the last month. So, business is picking up, which is not unusual.”

American brought in $1.2 billion in revenue from cargo in 2022, using space in the belly of plane to deliver goods across its network of more than 200 airports in the U.S. and dozens of international destinations. The carrier also handles about 50,000 pounds of mail per day through DFW. Overall, last year, the airport handled 901,908 U.S. tons of cargo among its 19 cargo airlines.

There are even days when a shark or a tiger might be at a cargo facility. Team members work shifts based on the day’s flight schedule. American also has a fleet of semi-trucks that drive to nearby cities to deliver cargo.

On the hangar side of the airport, some aircraft are parked at night, getting maintenance done, or last-minute cleaning for the next day’s flying.

Technical operations crews in American’s four line maintenance hangars work on 60 to 70 aircraft a night, starting around 10 p.m.

Maintenance technicians are assigned to each plane based on certifications and the severity of the technical problem. A typical night might have 250 mechanics at the hangars.

If you’re working overnight in the hangar, you might see a “vomit comet” or two, as some American employees call bumpy flights that induce several passengers to get sick.

Usually, maintenance technicians are worrying about the aircraft and anything wrong with it for the next day’s operations.

A typical American jet serving domestic routes, like an Airbus A321 or Boeing 737 Max, may serve three to five routes a day, while larger planes on transcontinental or international trips will likely fly two to three.

Greg Bentley, managing director of line maintenance at American, said the most time-consuming change is an engine. Some of the aircraft, sitting out in the hangar, need routine maintenance like cockpit window changes or interior changes. But American is also measuring every dent or bump to the aircraft to ensure nothing hinders its ability to fly.

“There’s really not a common thing that we do, because we touch everything here,” Bentley said.

Mechanics work through the night to make sure the fleet can be taxied to the runway by the first flight out at 5 a.m., all to start the day again at DFW Airport.

“We are very fortunate because DFW is our home,” Bentley said.

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