BWI Airport Information

The BWI Terminal has high ceilings and windows that fill the interior with sunlight.

Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) serves both Baltimore, Maryland and Washington DC.

The airport - located in Anne Arundel County, Maryland - is ten miles south of Baltimore and thirty miles north of Washington DC.

A total of 21 million passengers passed through BWI in 2007.

History of BWI Airport

Planning for a new airport to serve the Baltimore Washington area began after World War II and ground was broken in 1947.

Friendship International Airport was dedicated on June 24, 1950 by President Harry Truman.

The State of Maryland purchased Friendship International Airport from the City of Baltimore in 1972 and it was renamed the next year.

BWI Rail Station opened in 1980, providing a rail connection to passengers on the busy Northeast Corridor.

During the last ten years several major expansions have added new concourses and expanded the main terminal.

For much of the 1990s, BWI was a major hub for US Airways, but that airline's financial difficulties forced it to significantly reduce its presence at the airport.

Southwest Airlines started service to BWI in 1993 and has significantly increased its operations since then.

Southwest is now BWI's largest carrier with about 47% of passengers in 2005.

In 2005 the airport was renamed to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, to honor the former US Supreme Court justice, who grew up in Baltimore.