فنادق قريبة من ⁨مطار بالتيمور واشنطن الدولي (BWI)⁩

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (IATA: BWI, ICAO: KBWI, FAA LID: BWI), commonly referred to as Baltimore/Washington International Airport or simply as BWI Airport, is an international airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, located 9 miles (14 km; 7.8 nmi) south of downtown Baltimore and 30 miles (50 km) northeast of Washington, D.C. The airport is the 7th busiest in the Mid-Atlantic region of North America and is owned by the Maryland Aviation Administration. BWI is one of three major airports that serve the Washington–Baltimore metropolitan area. Dulles International Airport (IAD), in Dulles, Virginia, and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), in Crystal City, Virginia, are the other two. The airport serves as one of 13 U.S.-based operating bases for Southwest Airlines. In 2023, BWI recorded 12,849,636 passenger enplanements, making it the busiest airport in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, ranked at #23 in passenger enplanements in the U.S., followed by Reagan National at number 24 and Dulles at 26. In 2024, BWI ranked second in the Baltimore/Washington area with 27.06 million passengers served (slightly behind the 27.25 million passengers served at Dulles), just missing the record set in 2019. Originally opened as Friendship International Airport, the airport was named in 2005 in honor of Thurgood Marshall, a Baltimore native and the first African American to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. == History == === 20th century === Planning for a new airport on 3,200 acres (1,300 ha) to serve the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area began in 1944, just prior to the end of World War II, when the Baltimore Aviation Commission announced its decision that the best location to build a new airport would be on a 2,100-acre (850 ha) tract of land near Linthicum Heights, Maryland. The cost of building the airport was estimated at $9 million. The site was chosen because it was a 15-minute drive from Downtown Baltimore, close to the Pennsylvania Railroad line, the Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad line, and the proposed Baltimore–Washington Parkway, and visibility at the site was generally good. An alternate site along Gov. Ritchie Highway at Furnace Branch was rejected by the United States Department of War, and another possible site at Lipin's Corner was deemed too far from Baltimore. The State Aviation Commission approved of the Linthicum Heights site in 1946. Much of the land was purchased from Friendship Methodist Church in 1946, and ground was broken on May 2, 1947. Friendship Methodist Church held its last service on Easter Sunday in 1948. Friendship Methodist Church was razed to make room for the new airport. In addition, several pieces of land were bought, and 170 bodies buried in a cemetery were moved. Baltimore–Fort Meade Road was moved to the west to make way for the airport's construction. Friendship International Airport was dedicated on June 24, 1950, by President Harry S. Truman. Truman arrived in a Douglas DC-6, then the official presidential airplane, from nearby Washington National Airport. Accompanying Truman were the Governor William Preston Lane Jr. and Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., who was taking his first aircraft flight. The cost to construct the airport totaled $15 million. The following month, the airlines moved to the new airport from the old Baltimore Municipal Airport at Harbor Field in southeast Baltimore at 39.25°N 76.53°W / 39.25; -76.53. Eastern Airlines flew the first scheduled flight, a DC-3, into the airport at 12:01 am on July 23, 1950. Seven minutes later, the same plane was also the first flight to depart from the airport. Three hundred spectators came to watch the first flights arrive and depart. The Official Airline Guide reports 52 weekday departures from the airport as of April 1957: 19 Eastern, 12 Capital, 8 American, four National, three TWA, three United, two Delta, and one Allegheny. The departures included a couple nonstop flights to Miami, but westward nonstop flights did not reach beyond Ohio. The airport's reach expanded when jet service started. The early Boeing 707s and Douglas DC-8s could not use Washington National Airport, and Dulles International Airport, which opened in 1962, had not yet opened, so Baltimore became Washington, D.C.'s jet airport from May 1959 to June 1959, when American and TWA began transcontinental 707 flights. By 1963, Friendship Int'l Airport was equipped with a 9,450 feet (2,880 m) runway, which could handle any commercial jet aircraft at that time. In 1972, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) purchased Friendship International Airport from the City of Baltimore for $36 million. Under MDOT, the Maryland State Aviation Administration took over airfield operations, and the airport grew from three employees to more than 200. Plans to upgrade, improve, and modernize all Maryland airport facilities were announced almost immediately by Harry Hughes, then Maryland Secretary of Transportation and later Governor of Maryland. On November 16, 1973, in an effort to attract passengers from the Washington metropolitan area, particularly Montgomery and Prince George's counties in suburban Maryland, the airport was renamed Baltimore/Washington International Airport. Its IATA code, originally BAL, was changed to BWI by the International Air Transport Association on April 20, 1980, and the change became official six months later, on October 26. The BWI code had previously been used by an airport in Bewani, Papua New Guinea. In 1974, the first phase of the airport's modernization was completed 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 (1.02 ha). In 1979, the terminal renovation program was completed, representing the most dramatic work of the airport's modernization, which was designed by DMJM along with Peterson & Brickbauer. The renovations more than doubled the size of BWI's terminal to 14.58 acres (5.90 ha), and the number of gates increased from 20 to 27. The total cost was $70 million. To continue the work, the BWI Development Council was established to support initiatives for airport development. In 1980, the BWI Rail Station opened, providing a connection for passengers on the Northeast Corridor through Amtrak. BWI was the first airport in the U.S. with a dedicated intercity rail station. The station provided rail transit access to Washington, D.C., something that Dulles International Airport did not achieve until late 2022. BWI added a new international terminal (Concourse E), designed by STV Group and William Nicholas Bodouva & Associates, in 1997. Dulles, though, continues to hold the lion's share of the region's international flights. BWI has not attracted as many long-haul international carriers. The airport's first scheduled commercial transatlantic nonstop flights were Icelandic Air flights to Luxembourg Airport, which began November 3, 1978, but they ended in 1980 because of equipment shortages. World Airways began operating nonstop flights to London Gatwick Airport on May 30, 1981. Icelandic, now renamed Icelandair, restarted nonstop flights between BWI and Luxembourg in 1982. British Airways began nonstop flights between BWI and London Heathrow Airport in 1984. Aer Lingus, Air Jamaica, Air Aruba, Air Canada, Air Greenland, Condor, El Al, KLM, Ladeco, and Mexicana all previously flew to BWI. Over the first half of the 1990s, runway 15L/33R was extended 1,800 feet (550 m) from 3,199 ft (975 m) to its current length of 5,000 ft (1,500 m), allowing it to be used by small passenger jets like the Boeing 737. Beginning in the 1980s and for much of the 1990s, BWI was a hub for Piedmont Airlines and successor US Airways, but that airline's financial problems in the wake of the dot-com bust, the September 11 attacks, and low fare competition forced it to cut back. The airport has been a haven for low-cost flights in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan Area since Southwest Airlines' arrival in September 1993 and subsequent expansion in the early 2000s. Southwest is the airport's largest carrier, accounting for 56.12% of the airport's passengers in 2011. Southwest Airlines currently serves on average 245 daily departures to the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean. === 21st century === In January 2000, the BWI USO opened, the largest in the world at that time. Space-A flights operated by the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command continue to have a significant presence at BWI. Flights from Ramstein Air Base and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst occur frequently. The facility serves 99 percent of military personnel traveling to and from duty stations in Europe, Southwest Asia, and the United States. In July 2000, Ghana Airways began service from BWI to Accra. The airline operated the flight with McDonnell Douglas DC-10s and sought to serve the many people of West African origin residing in the region. Four years later, in July 2004, the U.S. federal government prohibited Ghana Airways from flying to the U.S. According to officials, the company was operating on an expired license and had disobeyed orders to stop flying an unsafe plane. In 2005, to accommodate Southwest's extensive presence at the airport, Concourses A and B were expanded, renovated, and integrated with one another to house all of that airline's operations there for their major operating base. The new facility, designed by URS Corporation, opened on May 22, 2005. On October 1 of that year, the airport was renamed Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, to honor former U.S. Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, a native of Baltimore. In June 2006, North American Airlines introduced a link to Accra via Banjul, The Gambia, marking the restoration of direct flights between Baltimore and Africa. The carrier employed Boeing 767s on the route. Afterward, it made the Accra flight nonstop and added a route to Lagos. North American ended all scheduled service in May 2008. In 2008, Health magazine named BWI the second-healthiest airport in the United States. In 2009 the airport had a six percent increase in air travelers due to the proliferation of discount flights. In a 2009 survey of airport service quality by Airports Council International, BWI was the world's top ranking airport in the 15-to-25-million-passenger category. BWI also ranked seventh, in medium-sized airports, based on customer satisfaction conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. On August 5, 2014, the airport's little-used runway, 04–22, was permanently closed. It was 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) long and used primarily when the main runways needed to be closed for repairs. The last operation on the runway was a Southwest Airlines flight from Chicago Midway Airport, which arrived at 4:18 AM. In 2015, Norwegian Air Shuttle announced it would begin flights from the airport to Guadeloupe and Martinique. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Norwegian Air Shuttle CEO Bjorn Kjos said, "Baltimore is high on the list for long-haul destinations", hinting at further expansion into Europe. In mid-2018, however, the airline ceased all flights out of Baltimore, attributing the cessation to heavy financial losses. In early 2016, a partnership between the airport and Towson University's WTMD radio station was announced, including a new concert series that takes place at the terminal's baggage claim on the lower level. Local bands included Wye Oak and others. The new series followed the release event of Animal Collective's new album Painting With on November 25, 2015, where the new album was streamed throughout the airport. In late 2018, construction began on a $60 million, five-gate expansion of terminal A for Southwest Airlines. The new expansion began operations in 2021. 2018 also marked a new annual record for passenger traffic at B