Dallas and Fort Worth competed for air services with a succession of airfields from 1927 until 1964, when the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the creation of a new, regional airport (terminals and west runways are located in Tarrant County and east runways are in Dallas County). Construction began in 1969, and like airports around the world, DFW has been continually expanded since. Currently the second largest airport in the United States in terms of land area, third busiest in the world for aircraft movements, and ninth busiest in the world for passenger traffic, DFW opened in 1974 and is the hub and headquarters for American Airlines.
The enormous facility was planned as a series of thirteen radial pods along a nearly 4.5-mile-long, north–south spine flanked with runways on both sides. Five of the planned thirteen pods have been developed to date as terminals linked with an elevated train. The first four terminals were designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum and Brodsky, Hopf and Adler. The International Terminal opened in 2005. The clarity, if not speed or convenience, of passenger circulation has benefited from a rigorous adherence to the master plan over the years.