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Baltimore Washington DC Airport
Airport Directory » United States » Baltimore » Baltimore Washington DC AirportBaltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA: BWI, ICAO: KBWI, FAA LID: BWI) is an international commercial airport assisting the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area in the United States. It is usually named BWI, BWI Airport or BWI-Marshall, BWI being an initialism for "Baltimore/Washington International" and the installation's IATA Airport Code. The airport is turn up in Linthicum, Maryland, a census-designated location in northern unincorporated Anne Arundel County, approximately ten land mile (16 kilometre) southward of Baltimore and 30 land mile (48 kilometre) nor'-east of Washington, D.C. It is named after Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native and the 1st African American to assist on the Supreme Court of the United States. BWI is a focal point town for both Southwest Airlines and AirTran Airways.
A enter 21.04 million riders passed through BWI in 2007, a 1.7% increase over 2006, make it the United States' 24th busiest airport. In 2006, traffic turned by 4.8%, to 20.7 million mortals.
History
Planning for a new airport on 3,200 acres (13 km²) to assist the Baltimore/Washington area set about merely after the finish of World War II, and dry land was broken in 1947. Located near Friendship Church in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Friendship International Airport was committed on June 24, 1950, by President Harry Truman. Regular commercial service set about the coming after calendar month. Jet service set about in 1957 when the 1st Boeing 707s were location in service.
The State of Maryland, through the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), bought Friendship International Airport from the City of Baltimore for $36 million in 1972. Under MDOT, the Maryland State Aviation Administration took over field functioning and turned from 3 employees to more than 200. Plans to upgrade, ameliorate, and modernise all Maryland airport installations were denoted well-nigh like a shot by the Secretary of Transportation, Harry Hughes. The airport was renamed Baltimore/Washington International Airport in 1973. However, the IATA codification stay as "BAL" because "BWI" was already used by another airport until 1982 when it was modified to "BWI". The new name was division of an attempt to draw riders from the Washington-area locomote marketplace.
The 1st stage of BWI modernisation was finished in 1974 at a cost of $30 million. Upgrades included ameliorated instrument districting capablenesses and landing track systems, and building of 3 new air freight depots, spreading out the airport's load capacity to 2.53 acres.
The rider depot redevelopment plan was complete in 1979, the most dramatic composition of the airport's modernisation. The BWI depot more than bivalent in size of it to 14.58 acres; the figure of entrance places increased from 20 to 27. The aggregative cost of labor was $70 million. To elongate the work, the BWI Development Council was constituted to back up go-ahead for airport development.
BWI Rail Station opened in 1980, supplying a train connexion to riders on the busy Northeast Corridor. BWI got the 1st airport in the U.S. to be assisted by a dedicated intercity rail station. In specific, the station furnished comparatively easy theodolite access to Washington, D.C., something Washington Dulles International Airport now deficiencies. In the late 1990s, a new international depot (Concourse E) was added, though Dulles elongates to maintain the king of beasts's part of the district's international voyages, and BWI has not draw many long-haul international bearers. Air Jamaica and British Airways have had a presence at BWI for many yr. AerLingus, Air Aruba, Air Greenland, El Al, Ghana Airways, Icelandair, KLM, and Mexicana antecedently winged to BWI. Military voyages, functioned by AMC, elongate to have a eminent presence at BWI.
Baggage demand area at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport.For much of the 1990s, BWI was a major hub for US Airways, but that air hose's fiscal troubles in the wake of the dot-com break and the September 11 assails squeezed it to significantly cut down its front at the airport. The airport has been a major haven for low-cost voyages in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area since the reaching of Southwest Airlines in September 1993, and in the early 2000s Southwest significantly increased its functioning there. Southwest is currently BWI's biggest bearer, accounting for approximately 52.5% of riders in 2007. The other major air hose with a eminent presence at the airport are AirTran (11.82%), Delta Air Lines (6.56%), United Airlines (6.44%), and US Airways (6.40%).
To adapt Southwest's extensive presence at the airport, in 2005 Concourses A and B were spread out, restituted, and incorporated with 1 another to house all of that air hose's functioning there. This new installation opened on May 22, 2005. On October one of that yr, the airport was renamed once more, to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, to honour the former US Supreme Court justness, who grow up in Baltimore. The more recent renaming has not ensued in a modify to the IATA and ICAO locator codifications.
The airport has been a background in numerous motion picture, including The Silence of the Lambs, Goldfinger, Broadcast News, and Twelve Monkeys.
In late 2008, Health Magazine named BWI the commonwealth's 2nd healthiest airport
Original article.