DFW Airport\u2019s board of directors wrapped up its year with a review of the impact the airport makes across North Texas with an update by CEO Chris McLaughlin at their Dec. 4 meeting.<\/p>\n
Economic impact<\/p>\n
The value of goods and services produced across the region as a result of the airport being in operation rose to $78 billion in 2024<\/a> from $46 billion in 2014, according to an economic impact analysis completed by The Perryman Group that was unveiled a day earlier at the fifth annual Skift Aviation Forum<\/a> in Fort Worth. The airport and American Airlines hosted the forum.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are now impacting the lives of 684,000 employees across North Texas that work closely with DFW every single day, and we\u2019re really proud again to have that impact on our community,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n DFW Airport Board Meeting<\/p>\n Documenter name:<\/strong> Doug Wilhelm<\/p>\n Date:<\/strong> Dec. 4<\/p>\n See more about this meeting at documenters.org.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n United Way<\/strong><\/p>\n DFW raised $426,000 for the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas<\/a> and the United Way of Tarrant County<\/a> over six weeks ending in October that included employee donations and proceeds from an annual golf tournament fundraiser.<\/p>\n Veterans card drive<\/p>\n In response to radio station New Country 96.3\u2019s annual Veterans Day card drive, DFW Airport employees wrote and signed 7,000 cards destined for delivery to U.S. troops around the world.<\/p>\n \u201cThese efforts continue to be a reflection of DFW culture of caring for our veterans, and we want to thank all veterans for their service to our country,\u201d McLaughlin said.<\/p>\n New airport hotel<\/p>\n Working with Hyatt Hotels, ground was broken Nov. 10 for a 130-room residence-style Hyatt House south of the airport\u2019s terminals, adjacent to the existing Hyatt Place. This project was conceived in 2019, but was placed on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Bond Buyer\u2019s award<\/strong><\/p>\n DFW has been named 2025 winner of Bond Buyer\u2019s Southwest Deal of the Year award<\/a>, sponsored by The Bond Buyer, a publication that covers municipal finance. DFW was recognized for a $1.967 billion revenue bond issuance that is partially funding its $12 billion capital program, including the construction of the new Terminal F<\/a>. This was the airport\u2019s second consecutive Southwest win and sixth overall recognition in the award\u2019s 24-year history.<\/p>\n Expenditures approved<\/p>\n The board approved expenditures of $103.1 million, focused primarily on Terminal F and Skylink station construction and security and law enforcement enhancements. The board also approved 2025 incentive compensation payments and 2026 incentive compensation goals for McLaughlin and the director of audit services.<\/p>\n Avelo Airlines challenged<\/p>\n In the public comment portion of the meeting, the board was challenged by two speakers to reconsider operations by Avelo Airlines at DFW Airport. Avelo provides commercial service between DFW and New Haven, Connecticut, but has also been contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to perform chartered deportation flights from other airports in the United States.<\/p>\n Brian Patman of Haltom City, relayed a story from April 2025 involving Reachel Alexas Morales-Valle<\/a>, an immigrant mother from Honduras who was deported<\/a> with her two children, both U.S. citizens and one who was undergoing treatment in the U.S. for kidney cancer.<\/p>\n Patman appealed to the board to bar Avelo from operating at DFW Airport if they do not terminate their contract with ICE.<\/p>\n Liz Mendoza from Irving raised concern about Avelo\u2019s compliance with safety regulations in execution of their contracts with ICE and challenged their ability to conduct an emergency evacuation<\/p>\n because deportees are typically shackled with handcuffs and leg irons. She also cited reports that deportees have been refused restroom access on planes that have been extensively delayed for maintenance or other logistical reasons.<\/p>\n Mendoza also asked the board to consider if Avelo should be allowed to continue their commercial operations from DFW Airport.<\/p>\n Board Chair DeMetris Sampson thanked Patman and Mendoza for their comments. A DFW spokesperson told the Fort Worth Report that the airport does not have information or authority over Avelo\u2019s arrangements with the federal government, and that further questions should be directed to the airline.<\/p>\n Doug Wilhelm is a member of the Fort Worth Report\u2019s Documenters crew.<\/p>\n If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at news@fortworthreport.org with \u201cCorrection Request\u201d in the subject line.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/12\/11\/dfw-airport-touts-positive-community-impact\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&quality=80&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=325082&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/12\/11\/dfw-airport-touts-positive-community-impact\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report December 11, 2025 DFW Airport\u2019s board of directors wrapped up its year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":441336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[10314,5229,43169,14614,7371,14615,14616,7372,358,1164,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-441335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-airlines","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-dfw-airport","11":"tag-documenters","12":"tag-fort-worth","13":"tag-fort-worth-documenters","14":"tag-fort-worth-report-documenters","15":"tag-fortworth","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-travel","18":"tag-tx","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115704028464436111","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}