Baltimore/Washington International Airport

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Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA: BWI, ICAO: KBWI) serves the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area in the United States. It is commonly referred to as BWI or BWI Airport, after its IATA Airport Code and also because BWI can stand for "Baltimore/Washington International". The airport is located in Linthicum, an unincorporated area of Anne Arundel County, Maryland. In 2006 the airport served a record 20.7 million passengers, up nearly five percent from 2005 and besting the previous high set in 2001. BWI is a major focus city for Southwest Airlines.

History

Planning on a new airport on 3,200 acres (13 km²) to serve the Baltimore/Washington area began just after the end of World War II, and ground was broken in 1947. Located near Friendship Church in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, 10 miles south of Baltimore and 30 miles north of Washington, D.C., Friendship International Airport was dedicated on June 24, 1950, by President Harry Truman. Regular commercial service started the following month. Jet service started in 1957 when the first Boeing 707s were placed in service.

The State of Maryland, through the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), purchased Friendship International Airport from the City of Baltimore for $36 million in 1972. Under MDOT, the Maryland State Aviation Administration took over airfield operations and grew from three employees to more than 200. Plans to upgrade, improve, and modernize all Maryland airport facilities were announced almost immediately by the Secretary of Transportation, Harry Hughes. The airport was renamed Baltimore/Washington International Airport in 1973. However, the IATA code remained as "BAL" because "BWI" was already used by another airport until 1982 when it was changed to "BWI". The new name was part of an effort to grab a portion of the Washington-area travel market.

The first phase of BWI modernization was completed in 1974 at a cost of $30 million. Upgrades included improved instrument landing capabilities and runway systems, and construction of three new air cargo terminals, expanding the airport's freight capacity to 2.53 acres.

The passenger terminal renovation program was complete in 1979, the most dramatic work of the airport's modernization. The BWI terminal more than doubled in size to 14.58 acres; the number of gate positions increased from 20 to 27. The total cost of project was $70 million. To continue the work, the BWI Development Council was established to support initiatives for airport development.

BWI Rail Station opened in 1980, providing a rail connection to passengers on the busy Northeast Corridor. BWI became first airport in the U.S. to be served by a dedicated intercity rail station. In particular, the station provided relatively easy transit access to Washington, D.C., something Dulles International Airport lacks. In the late 1990s, a new international terminal (Concourse E) was added, though Dulles continues to hold the lion's share of the region's international flights, and BWI has not attracted many long-haul international carriers. British Airways and Icelandair have had a presence at BWI for many years. Other airlines, such as KLM, AerLingus, Ghana Airways, and El Al, started but later stopped flying to BWI.

Baggage claim area at the Baltimore/Washington International Airport.

For much of the 1990s, BWI was a major hub for US Airways, but that airline's financial difficulties in the wake of the dot-com bust and the September 11 attacks forced it to significantly reduce its presence at the airport. The airport has been a major haven for low-cost flights in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area since the arrival of Southwest Airlines in September of 1993, and in the early 2000s Southwest significantly increased its operations there. Southwest is now BWI's largest carrier, accounting for about 51% of passengers in 2006.

To accommodate Southwest's extensive presence at the airport, in 2005 Concourses A and B were expanded, renovated, and integrated with one another to house all of that airline's operations there. On October 1 of that year, the airport was renamed again, to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, to honor the former US Supreme Court justice, who grew up in Baltimore. The more recent renaming has not resulted in a change to the IATA and ICAO locator codes. The airport is considered to be one of the safest airports in the country[citation needed]; however, in the fall of 2006, the airport was evacuated when a man accidentally brought a gun into the terminal, a scare that turned out not to be anything terrorist-related.

The airport has been a backdrop in numerous films, including The Silence of the Lambs, Goldfinger, and Broadcast News.

Terminals and destinations

Destinations with direct service from BWI

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport has five concourses, though Concourses A and B were essentially merged into a single concourse in a recent renovation.

Concourses A/B

  • Southwest Airlines (Albany, Albuquerque, Austin, Birmingham (AL), Buffalo, Chicago-Midway, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Detroit, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Hartford, Houston-Hobby, Indianapolis, Jackson, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Little Rock, Long Island/Islip, Los Angeles [ends October 4], Louisville, Manchester (NH), Nashville, New Orleans, Norfolk, Oakland [ends October 4], Oklahoma City [begins August 4], Orlando, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Providence, Raleigh/Durham, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Tampa, West Palm Beach)

Concourse C

Concourse D

Concourse E

Councourse E is officially entitled the Governor William Donald Schaefer International Terminal.

International terminal (Pier E) at BWI

Airline lounges

Car rental

BWI airport recently opened a large rental car facility providing one-stop rental car shopping for passengers. A free ten-minute shuttle bus ride carries passengers between the car rental facility and the lower level of the airport terminal.

Access

Rail

Light rail vehicle at BWI station

BWI Rail Station is located about a mile from the airport terminal; a free shuttle bus brings passengers to and from the train station and airport terminal. The station is served by Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains and, on weekdays, by the MARC Penn Line. Travel time by train is about ten minutes to Baltimore's Penn Station and thirty-five minutes to Union Station in Washington, D.C. MARC tickets are $4 to Baltimore and $6 to Washington; Amtrak tickets are $17-$22 to Baltimore and $17-$36 to Washington. Trains depart at least once an hour seven days a week, with departure times during rush hours and business hours being significantly more frequent.[1]

The Maryland Transit Administration's Light Rail line has a station just outside the entrance to the airport's International Terminal. Passengers can take the Light Rail to a variety of destinations in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, and Baltimore County, and can transfer to the Metro Subway in Baltimore, or to either of MARC's Baltimore terminals. A one-way ticket costs $1.60; an all-day pass, which gives you access to bus, light rail, and Metro Subway travel throughout greater Baltimore, costs $3.50. A ride downtown takes approximately 30 minutes. Trains run every 20 minutes during peak hours, and 30 minutes all other times. [2]

There were two separete incidents in 2000 in which Light Rail vehicles crashed into buffers at the end of the tracks near the terminal entrance. The operator in the first incident, which occurred in February, admitted to have taken a powerful pain killer as well as cocaine. He was fired for not informing officials about the pain killer before the cocaine was discovered. The driver of the second incident was taking prescription drugs, which he had informed transit officials about.

Buses

Shuttle buses provide service between BWI and the Washington Metrorail subway station at Greenbelt, Maryland[3]. This bus is the B30 route, which runs approximately every 40 minutes 6am-10pm weekdays and 9am-10pm on weekends, priced at $3.00 one-way payable by cash or SmarTrip.

Highway

BWI is located just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. It is also accessible from Interstate 95 by using a spur, Interstate 195.

  • Ground Transportation Schedules
  1. ^ MARC Penn Line rail schedule
  2. ^ MTA Light Rail schedules
  3. ^ WMATA Express Bus Schedule to Greenbelt Metro
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