John M. Chase/Getty Images Global demand for air travel continues trending skyward, and the world's worst airports are only getting bigger and more obnoxious to traverse. To account for this, designers have devised all sorts of "people movers" to transport folks around. Some of these, like The Plane Train in the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport that serves more than 200,000 daily riders, are efficient yet unexciting. On the other end of the spectrum, some airport people-mover projects have been weird as all get-out — see Hungary's failed double-decker airport bus project for an example. Still, when it comes to weird ways to get around an airport, the mobile lounge just might take the cake. Resembling a jacked-up, double-wide train carriage on stilts and semi wheels, this lounge-bus hybrid was positioned as a revolutionary way for up to 102 passengers at a time to get from the gate to an aircraft in retro-futuristic glamour. It was an efficient alternative to the then-standard practice of humping it on foot across the tarmac, or taking a standard low-capacity bus or tram to your plane. While still in limited use today, the mobile lounge's luster has faded over time. After several recent accidents, continued safety concerns, and the simple realities of aging technology, the mobile lounge might finally be on its last legs — no pun intended. The dream of the '60s was alive at Dulles Library of Congress / Balthazar Korab The mobile lounge entered service in 1962, thanks to a joint venture between the Chrysler Corporation and Budd Company. The first models rolled out the same year that the new Dulles International Airport in Virginia opened. At the time, these lounges were considered novel and tech-forward, and they meshed well with Dulles Airport's mid-century-modern aesthetic. Unfortunately, these big boxes began hitting hurdles almost immediately. The now-ubiquitous jet bridge was introduced just a few years before the mobile lounge, and it even came with the way-cooler moniker of an aero-gangplank when it was first used at Chicago's O'Hare in 1958. The cool name didn't stick, but nonetheless the jet bridge became the preferred way to move travelers from gate to aircraft at most major airports. Though mobile lounges are still used today, they're a rare sight outside of Dulles Airport and Montreal, Canada's Trudeau International. More troubling than merely falling out of favor, a series of accidents over the last couple decades involving mobile lounges have led to serious injuries. Over that time, plenty of ink has been spilled on the mobile lounge becoming obsolete, or for becoming simply a fun diversion sought out by aviation enthusiasts. Safety concerns and the twilight of the mobile lounge John M. Chase/Getty Images According to an investigation by NBC News Washington, there were 16 significant incidents involving mobile lounges at Dulles Airport between 2007 and 2017. These have resulted in several injuries and at least one fatality. More recently, in November 2025, at least 18 were injured after a mobile lounge collided with a docking bay at Dulles. That same month, another collision involving a mobile lounge and an airport tug vehicle took place. Luckily, no injuries were reported in the second incident. Of course, there are always going to be risks associated with vehicles that haul people around, and the mobile lounge isn't the only people mover that's had safety issues over the years. Still, these recent incidents paint these mobile lounges in a negative light, especially considering the severity of some of the injuries incurred as a result of the crashes. When taking into consideration the frequency and severity of the accidents involving mobile lounges, it seems like only a matter of time before these once-revolutionary vehicles become too much of a liability and are nixed permanently.