Washington Dulles International Airport opened in 1962 and featured mobile lounges to get people to and from the aircraft. These vehicles are essentially large buses that look like some kind of futuristic lunar rover.
Over the years they have gradually fallen out of use, as airport design changed and underground train systems came into favour. Dulles is one of the few airports with the lounges – often called Plane Mates – still in use.
Mobile Lounge History
Sometimes we forget that people in the past had great design ideas. Mobile lounges are designed to save people having to walk so far in an airport. I can appreciate that, some airports require miles of walking to get from check-in to the gate.
Eero Saarinen designed Washington Dulles with this in mind. People would arrive at the terminal, check-in and take a short walk across the building and wait inside a mobile lounge. Around 15 minutes before departure, the doors would close and it would head off to the plane.
The other reason is that arriving passengers prefer to walk to where they have to go. They apparently did not appreciate being captured in another vehicle on arrival, something I can relate to as I despise arriving and having to get a bus to the terminal.
Mobile Lounges Are Cool Though!
People arriving from abroad into Dulles get to use these vehicles to take them from the terminal to the International Arrivals Building. I was very happy when I got to use them on my visits to Washington DC.
Overall Thoughts
As someone who likes to walk, even I find the extremely long distances at some airports – I’m looking at you, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (it’s pronounced “Suwannapoom” by the way) – quite annoying at times. Taking a mobile lounge that saves me a lot of walking would be preferable.
That being said, underground train systems are more efficient to run and better for the environment on an ongoing basis. Overlooking the additional costs and environmental impact of building it in the first place, of course.
I know the long term plan is to retire them at Washington Dulles. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying my international arrival into that airport and boarding a piece of history.
What do you think of the mobile lounges at Dulles? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by dave_7 via Wikimedia Commons.
Black and white mobile lounge image via Petrolicious.
Interior of mobile lounge via the Library of Congress.
I feel quite bad that the mobile lounge driver just saw my look of absolute despair when I realized I had to cram into one of these after three flights and arriving after midnight and still having to go through immigration and customs. The minutes just waiting there as people cram in are some of the slowest in my life. Especially in Covid times it feels like the most claustrophobic setting I can think of. And still more people pile on and more people pile on and then the driver has to grumpily tell people to push even further towards the back, and no one has been given good instructions or have an intuitive feel of what to do when they get on it. All that said, if you catch me on a good day, and the bus leaves before it’s too full, then I can see the retro romance of it. But that’s one time out of five at best.
I think you just outlined the experience very well there! I can imagine it would be the last thing you’d want to see after a long trip. Well, welcome home, I guess 🙂 Thanks for sharing that!
I have used Dulles a few times and to me, the original terminal building and the mobile lounges are great. Beautiful examples of 60’s modernism, and far more interesting than the many, more bland airports common elsewhere in the US. Personally I am glad these features could be retained at Dulles as it has expanded. It’s just a shame the design of the mid-field concourse is so bland and gloomy in comparison.
I agree on the walking distances at Suvarnabhumi but ultimately similar convenience is provided by the long walk with moving walkways, inter-terminal trains or remote parking flights with transfer buses that deliver passengers close to immigration, similar to the original Dulles concept and also used a Suvarnabhumi etc.
The killer for modern airports is adapting to the increasing complexity of security checks and immigration.
I agree with you, I think Dulles is pretty cool, as it’s so unique in its design really. I guess the end goal of the airports is functionality and ease for passengers, which is why so many are so similar today. That, plus cost, I imagine. I hear you on the security and immigration checks, they have changed a lot over the years and older facilities have found it expensive to adapt, especially where there is limited space. Thanks for the comment!
The article misses some important points. Regarding environmental concerns it is much more efficient to move the lounge than it is to move the aircraft. it also can lead to a much more compact airport. I’m disappointed this isn’t the standard for airports around the world today.
True, however once an aircraft is at a gate, there is no further movement, so it is actually worse for the environment to use the mobile lounges. Even buses are more efficient as they’re not as heavy. It’s probably best it’s not the standard, but it’s a curio anyway. Thanks for the comment!
I’ve lived in DC for 20 years now and the moon buggies never bother me. IAD is an easy airport to get in and out of. I’ve been to plenty of airports in the country where changing terminals is more difficult.
Glad to hear it! I’ve always found IAD to be fine enough as well. Thanks for the comment!
We used to fly PIA -CMI-IAD on Ozark every December to visit family in Northern Virginia before Ozark switched to BWI and DCA then we flew to DCA. They usually parked at the commuter gates so we would just walk across the ramp to/from the gates. One time however we got to use the lounges and I thought it was GREAT! Very “Space Age” at the time and a cool change from the standard jetway or ramp walk.
I connected on UA not so long ago flying STL-IAD-RIC and was surprised to find the buggy as an option to the UA Express gates on A. So rather than take the underground train I hopped on one for a blast from the past. I loved the way it darted around the activity on the ramp and dropped me off practically at my connecting gate.
Is it archaic? Maybe. But it was a nice change of pace from the usual.
Nice that you got to use them back in the day. Ozark – there’s an airline I haven’t heard about for a long time. It’s amazing how many airlines there used to be in the USA compared to now.
Good call taking it for a change from the usual. I probably would have done the same thing in your situation. It’s fun to do something different!
I think they were used at Misrabel (YMX) on a regular basis too. Major problem was their HIGHLY unreliable mechanical systems with the hydraulic lift in particular jamming at the most inconvenient times (think suspended in mid air and not able to go up or down).
Yes, they were definitely used at Montreal-Mirabel as well, when it still handled passenger traffic. I had heard about the unreliability of the vehicles, which certainly wouldn’t endear them to passengers. Thanks for the comment!
You cannot be serious. These things literally make me embarrassed as an American that the first experience on US soil for many visitors is to be crammed into a bus until it’s literally wall to wall people to drive to immigration. It is among the worst immigration experiences I have encountered including in many many nations that would be deemed “developing.” As a Washingtonian, I think these things are a stain on our infrastructure.
Really? I never found my experience on the Mobile Lounge to be that bad. Washington is a beautiful city with great people – one of my favourite in the US, in fact – but there is a lot of infrastructure that needs upgrading before the Mobile Lounge at the airport. Talking of immigration, US immigration is hell on wheels on a good day anyway, hands down the most intrusive. I much prefer to depart from Dublin when I can, to take advantage of immigration pre-clearance. The staff outside the US seem to be a lot nicer. Thanks for the comment, great to get a native’s opinion on the machines!
No one likes these dinosaurs. They need to extend the underground tunnel from A/B to C/D. I’d much rather walk.
I think they’re fantastic – but I don’t have to use them on anything like a frequent basis. The plan is for them to eventually go, so you’ll get your wish 🙂 Thanks for the comment!