It is the largest hub for American Airlines , which is headquartered near the airport, [ 2 ] and is the third-busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements and the second-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in and , according to the Airports Council International. DFW Airport has service to destinations domestic, 63 international from 28 passenger airlines.
Every major city in the Contiguous United States can be flown to in four hours or less. It is also the largest carbon neutral airport in the world and the first in North America to achieve this status. As early as , before the area had an airport, Dallas proposed a joint airport with Fort Worth. Fort Worth declined the offer and thus each city opened its own airport, Love Field in Dallas and Meacham Field in Fort Worth, each of which had scheduled airline service.
American Airlines and Braniff Airways struck a deal with the city of Arlington to build an airport there, but the governments of Dallas and Fort Worth disagreed over its construction and the project was abandoned in In , Fort Worth transferred its commercial flights from Meacham to the new airport, which was 12 miles 19 km from Love Field. The joint airport proposal was revisited in after the Federal Aviation Administration FAA refused to invest more money into separate Dallas and Fort Worth airports.
While airline service had steeply declined at both GSW and Meacham, Love Field was congested and had no more room to expand. Following an order from the federal government in that it would unilaterally choose a site if the cities could not come to an agreement, officials from the two cities finally agreed on a location for a new regional airport that was just north of the near-abandoned GSW and almost equidistant from the two city centers.
The land was purchased by the cities in and construction began in Voters went to the polls in cities throughout the DallasβFort Worth metroplex to approve the new North Texas Regional Airport, which was named after the North Texas Commission that was instrumental in the regional airport coming to fruition.
