I wasn’t planning on doing a Baltimore/Washington (BWI) post originally, but after doing DCA on Monday and Dulles on Tuesday, well, let’s just finish out Washington Week with the other airport serving the metro area. This is actually a very interesting airport with what I would consider to be the least fixed future of the three in the region.
Of all the DC-area airports, BWI has probably had the most tumultous history. It started life as Baltimore’s airport, but once the state took over in 1972, the plan became more regionally-focused. In 1973, the airport was renamed Baltimore/Washington International, and in 1980 the code officially changed to BWI.
In 1983, Piedmont officially made BWI one of its hubs, and that ended up sticking around once USAir bought the airline. The two combined in 1989, and they ran their hub out of the D gates. Here’s a map from around the time of the transition:
But this hub would not last long. T-100 traffic data starts in 1990, so you can see the downfall throughout the 1990s as another airline rose up.
Seats by Month for Select Airlines From BWI
Data via Cirium
The hub took a big hit during the Gulf War recession, but it was 1993 when Southwest decided to make BWI its first East Coast operation and then it was off to the races. On a personal note, I started as a freshman at George Washington University in 1995, and my dad had Company Club tickets to get me back and forth to Phoenix for breaks. Most of the time it required two stops, often Chicago and Omaha or St Louis and Tulsa or something wild like that. That’s how BWI started, but it grew very quickly in the late 1990s to 2001. After 9/11 the now-US Airways hub was officially dead, and Southwest just kept growing.
BWI became known as the low-cost airline airport since that was the one place Southwest served in the region for man years, but it went even lower cost when the ULCCs started to poke around.
BWI was always a hotspot for the random cats and dogs of the airline world that wanted to serve the area. Internationally, Ghana Airways and Air Senegal made the place home. Within North America, there were the likes of Pro Air, USA3000, and Pan Am III over the years. But the first true ULCC came in 2012 when Spirit moved its operation from DCA. Then Allegiant started flying there in 2016, Frontier in 2019, Sun Country in 2020, and Avelo in 2022.
Here’s a look at market share at the airport over time to show just where these changes happened.
BWI Seat Share By Month
Data via Cirium
The ULCCs have made a dent in Southwest’s share, but that seems to have largely stalled out. Spirit spent 2024 adding flights to the West Coast, but it cut back elsewhere. Overall, BWI saw Spirit seats increase in 2024 vs 2023, but the airline was more than a quarter below its peak 2019 levels. And in 2025, more than a half dozen markets that flew in 2024 aren’t scheduled to return.
Frontier is much smaller and has seen a similar trend with more destinations but only small seat gains. It is certainly much more focused on Philly where it has a crew base. Allegiant, meanwhile, has shrunk dramatically with seats in 2024 less than half what they were in 2022. Sun Country and Avelo are rounding errors and likely will remain that way at the airport.
So, what does the future hold? BWI will continue to be Southwest’s primary East Coast gateway, without question. The addition of redeyes has made BWI even more relevant for longer haul flying than it was before. And the MAX gives the airline more useful range. Southwest just signed its first interline agreement (this time around) with Icelandair, and that starts with feeding travelers through BWI. While I don’t imagine this is going to be huge, it will be the first of more to come.
But what happens beyond Southwest is a bigger question mark. Spirit is bankrupt, though it has a plan to emerge. Frontier has remade its network, but BWI doesn’t seem like it will be a major part of any plan. Again, that pesky focus on Philly may put BWI on the backburner. Avelo likes Wilmington, and Allegiant seems to have drifted elsewhere.
With the reduction in capacity at DCA, at least temporarily, BWI could benefit to some extent. But as is the case for airports like Midway and Hobby, as Southwest goes, so goes BWI.
56 comments on “BWI’s Future is Full of LUV, But What Else?”
BWI will not benefit much, if anything, from capacity reductions at DCA. BWI is a WN fortress, and not much else. The legacy carriers serve it, marginally, because of the catchment area around it, not because of Baltimore’s economy or business traffic demand. Long haul routes generally haven’t worked out of BWI to Europe. It will remain as is, a low-cost’ish airport and second fiddle to DCA and to IAD, which have far wealthier, more consistent traffic patterns and a very healthy mix of leisure and corporate traffic, which BWI does not.
Maryland’s moneyed areas are mostly centered in Montgomery County around Rockville & Harford County in & around Columbia. You’ll find other concentrations near Annapolis & the eastern shore, but not to the same degree.
I think you mean Howard County, not Harford County.
Yes Alex, my mistake.
Born and raised in the area and it does have a bigger corporate / business base than many people realize (including the Baltimore metro). The Baltimore metro area (not including DC) is the 19th largest economy in the U.S., larger than Charlotte, Austin and Tampa. It’s also much more convenient to fly out of BWI if you live in the Columbia and Annapolis areas, and it gets southern PA and some DE traffic. And let’s not act like it’s all doom and gloom, it routinely has the highest yearly passenger count of any of the three airports in the wider metro area. I’d love to see Delta make it a focus city – I think it could work. I also think new leadership is needed – current Ex Dir has been there too long – new ideas are needed to take the airport to the next level. It should also be more like this region’s Newark than it is, relatively speaking.
They’ve been talking about a Maglev/highspeed train between Baltimore and DC forever. While I’m not holding my breath, BWI needs to cash in on this with an intermediate stop at BWI. A 10 minute ride between downtown DC and BWI with hourly service (supplemented by MARC Train service, a 45 minute but cheaper ride) could make BWI a realistic alternative for downtown DC travel. Otherwise, the 45 minute MARC Train ride with service every 25-40 minutes at best during rush hour and every few hours on the weekends, and only with service to New Carrollton and Union for DC connections, BWI isn’t much of an option to travelers even from downtown DC, much less further out
The Acela already makes the trip in 25 minutes – I’m not sure that cutting the travel time from Union Station to the BWI Amtrak station by 15 minutes would make a big difference.
The much bigger problem is that the stations are inconveniently located on each end.
Union Station is not close to the most common destinations for a business traveler to DC. If they are headed downtown, they need to take a 15 minute Metro ride to Farragut North, and then walk. If they need to get to Rossyln, it’s a two-seat ride on the Metro, followed by a walk.
On the BWI side, the station requires a ~15 minute shuttle bus to the terminal.
More generally, Washington is a very car-based Metro area, and origins and destinations are quite distributed around the area. Downtown DC is likely the origin or destination for only a small percentage of passengers. BWI’s location within the road network matters a lot more.
What’s interesting about this region is that, compared with what’s around DCA and IAD, BWI actually is in the least moneyed area. Yet, it’s right near Columbia and Howard County, which is one of the wealthiest places in the country. And Maryland suburbs of DC to the north of the district (eastern Montgomery Co) are pretty well off too. BWI is, in some ways, the most accessible airport in the region and the easiest to get around. But, ultimately, whether you fly there, to IAD or DCA depends a lot on where you need to be. Sure, any of the three will work. But if need to visit someone in Columbia, you’re not going to want to fly to IAD – that could be a 90 min to 2+hour drive. Likewise, if you’re going to Chantilly, no way you’d want to do BWI. And from the district, DCA is the easiest but any of the three are options.
BWI is actually the most user friendly of the three and the most accessible. Whether you fly there depends a lot on where you need to be.
Just like in NYC, if you live in most of NJ EWR is your best option. Likewise if you live in Westchester County/ southern CT or LI you are most likely using JFK or LGA depending on your needs & or schedule.
Just like in NYC, if you live in most of NJ EWR is your best option. Likewise if you live in Westchester County/ southern CT or LI you are most likely using JFK or LGA depending on your needs & or schedule.
In no way shape or form is BWI more user friendly than DCA
Hard disagree
Based on what? Terminals? Concourses? Security? Time from curbside to gate? Time from rail to terminal? I honestly can’t think of a single thing at BWI that would be preferable to DCA but I’m happy to listen.
Traffic in out of DCA (and Dulles) is much worse than BWI. I’ve missed flights trying to get to DCA. BWI is fairly easy to get in and out of and the shuttle from the MARC / Amtrak station to the terminal is easy and fast.
Second fiddle? BWI is regularly the busiest airport in the region.
But how much of that is O&D versus WN flow through he airport? I’ve seen figures that 1/4 to 1/3 of BWI traffic is flow, that exceeds the percentage of traffic of the other two area fields.
DCA has a little flow on AA but is more O&D focused, I believe in excess of 80% and IAD even with the UA flow and TATL traffic is still over 70% O&D.
Brad – A quick look at domestic says BWI is 60% local while DCA is 77% and Dulles is 38%.
I think the list of “blink and you’ll miss them” airlines briefly at BWI should have included the restaurant chain’s Hooters Air of the early 2000s. According to local news coverage the DMV (District/Maryland/Virginia) is getting a fourth commercial airport in Manassas, Va. about 30 miles from DC that will be focused on LCC operations. https://wtop.com/local/2024/09/when-will-commercial-flights-begin-at-manassas-airport-heres-what-we-know/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIaw-FleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcXyGEjLrEyRf6Pqu8t1LMwYihIwyRbRlwRchRcJtfVFzeQzHCP5W5zwNA_aem_2GHIRJnLrKuLjPej2kefoQ
CF,
Would the Manassas airport be similar to a Peotone (IL) where the politicians want it but the airlines don’t?
Isn’t that similar to an airport near St. Louis?
Mid-America is open (barely)
I thought Mid-America had closed, but if anyone could make something work out of there it’s Allegiant.
Angry Bob – I see no world where anyone wants that Manassas airport. Maybe some politicians do, but it’s not like Peotone which was supposed to be a major third airport. This is just a tiny airport that they are hoping some ULCC will decide makes sense. But it doesn’t. Woof.
The catchment area around Manassas Regional Airport does not inspire confidence. The density of the entire region immediately to the south of the airport is super low – it’s literally horse farms.
If you look at the satellite view, it’s clear that Manassas and its surroundings (Manassas Park, Gainesville, and Haymarket) are an “island of density” surrounded by very low population density in all directions. This is definitely not a HVN situation, or even an ILG.
At the same time, the combined population of Prince William County + Manassas + Manassas Park is ~545,000, and travel times to IAD or DCA are pretty long due to congested roads. Maybe Avelo or Breeze can fill 1-2 planes per week going to Disney World.
Hard to justify building an airport to serve 1-2 flights a week to Disney. And Manassas to IAD is not a long drive at all since you can avoid 66 and 95.
I can see someone giving it a try as long as they aren’t asked up to pony up any cash toward the terminal. Allegiant already serves IAD, but I could see Avelo or (more likely) Breeze try MCO. Outside chance of Avelo trying LAL if they wind up dropping another destination there and LAL has some advertising funds to throw in the pot. But that’s about it.
The Baltimore airport history overlooks one important fact.
Before it became Baltimore-Washington, it was Friendship International. It had been named that, after a church nearby.
Anecdotally…
When I was growing up, the only airport people used was Friendship. I remember when Dulles opened, and my father drove us out there just to see it. Back then, it was the very definition of boondocks.
People like to look down their noses at BWI… but for the two million of us who live in DC’s Maryland suburbs, BWI is a no-brainer. Although I never fly Southwest, it makes more sense for me to use a legacy carrier from BWI that involves a connection somewhere, than to spend hours fighting traffic, distance and logistics to get to/from Dulles or DCA.
Build it in the boondocks and they will come, eventually. See also, DEN.
So glad you stuck with DC week!
How did you get between GW and BWI? Bumming rides, Amtrak, MARC?
emac – If it was a weekday I could take MARC, so I did that sometimes. (Is it still weekday-only?) More often I would either take Supershuttle or I had a friend who lived in Baltimore who would drop me off on his way home for break.
The Penn Line runs on weekends now, but the schedule is pretty limited. Amtrak has a much more frequent schedule, but fares are variable – can be anywhere from $5 to $40ish if they have sold out of the coach seats. But generally it’s pretty cheap on weekends if you book in advance.
If Amtrak weren’t such a mess organizationally, it would make a ton of sense to sell combined tickets with Southwest Airlines like they used to do with United at EWR. But I think it’s too hard to guarantee a decent passenger experience in the event of IRROPS on either side.
Southwest is also set to open a maintenance hangar at BWI later this year. A major investment, it’s the first Southwest mx facility in the northeast part of the country.
BWI is one of my favorite airports. It has a wide variety of great food choices that are not exorbitantly priced along with a great brewery. There’s a gym to get a quick workout in during a delay. Parking is $8/day with easy highway access. Lightrail from the terminal to Baltimore (yes, it’s a bit slow) and MARC and Amtrak service via a quick shuttle ride from the terminal. The airport is always clean (especially the bathrooms), plenty of seating, plenty of outlets to charge your devices, and, when TSA isn’t testing some new method, TSA is pretty efficient. I just wish another airline would make a move – I don’t care for Southwest and they have lost their minds with the fares they’re charging these days, often DCA or IAD is cheaper than BWI on the routes I’m flying with them. Just recently searched for March 2, MIA-BWI $311-$723 on SW vs $128-$219 on AA, Spirit, and Frontier.
It’s crazy how expensive Southwest is now. As someone who is frequently flying with kids, I prefer to book Southwest for the free checked bags and seat assignments. But even after paying for a bundle that includes those things, Spirit or Frontier are often >$100/person less expensive. Hard to justify paying the premium for Southwest.
Agree with all of this. BWI is a low key great airport. When I lived in southeast DC, before the completion of the silver line, BWI was my #2 choice behind DCA. I enjoyed the MARC train ride to BWI more than the silver line to Reston followed by a bus to IAD.
I also live in the Baltimore/DC area (Howard County which is one of the top 15 counties in the US based on income). I am surprised Breeze is not flying from BWI and more international carries (currently have BA, Icelandair & Bermuda Air) are not utilizing the airport.
I love Dulles but it is a Royal pia both getting to the terminal (traffic backs up well before the terminal most afternoons) & will only use for non-stop international flights. After the recent in flight collision at DCA I will never fly out of there again.
As Cranky noted, with Southwest starting to codeshare, things might change for BWI. I don’t think it will make a huge difference for Southwest as an airline, but it could make a difference for an airport like BWI.
The big reason there aren’t more international carriers at BWI is because the demand is more concentrated at IAD; and the agglomeration and network effects mean it’s a lot easier to add flights there (particularly for carriers associated with United in some way). And Southwest being unwilling/unable to partner with international carriers was a big reason not to do BWI.
To my knowledge, international travel at BWI relies almost solely on local traffic with probably a few exceptions on Southwest between the Northeast and CUN, MBJ, PUJ, etc. So I don’t see international taking off. For the region, IAD has United and Star Alliance to help fill planes. I’m not sure SW partnering with Iceland Air will do much. If I live in elsewhere in the country and want to go to mainland Europe, I’m going one stop via NYC (or whatever hub) instead of two stops via BWI & KEF.
I would have naively expected federal government travel to be a significant source of demand, but there is much less than I would have expected at all 3 DC area airports. In FY2025, GSA City Pair passenger counts at each airport were:
– BWI: 282,753
– DCA: 1,084,525
– IAD: 343,928
The GSA data counts passengers that traveled in either direction, so enplanements would be roughly half the values above.
These numbers are very small compared to passenger volume at all 3 airports. There is also minimal “upside” for the airline, because almost all tickets are fully-refundable coach fares at a pre-negotiated rate. The airlines don’t get the normal benefits of selling to business travelers, like charging extremely high prices for last-minute tickets, or selling ancillaries to travelers that can expense them.
Overall, it seems like federal government employee travel just isn’t a major revenue opportunity. Federal government employees don’t travel that much, and they don’t spend much when they do.
The GSA City Pair data doesn’t include travel for government contractors, so it’s plausible that indirect demand through contractors is a much larger revenue opportunity. I’m sure the corporate contracts for Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, etc. are at least somewhat attractive for airlines.
I think this helps explain why BWI is so dominated by leisure-oriented airlines. The demand for business travel in the area is much lower than its level of wealth would imply.
We’re still in the middle of FY25. Are those passenger counts for FY24?
Yeah I meant FY24. Thanks.
BWI works well for WN for the same reason it does well at MDW, DAL, and HOU – it dominates an airport in a multi-airport region. It pushes lots of connecting traffic through BWI in part because the Baltimore/Washington area sits favorably in the middle of the massive east coast traffic flows and also in the middle of other airline hubs.
BWI is helped by being right off I-95 and I-97, making it the closest big airport for a lot more people than it would appear. For example, much of Harrisburg PA is closer to BWI than to PHL. State College is as well.
IAD’s road network is sub-optimal for its size.
Let’s not overlook BWI’s significance from a cargo perspective. The Amazon facility there is gigantic (and relatively new).
Who numbered those 1983 gates? Goodness.
You’re not wrong. Lmao
All of Southwest’s success is in spite of the fact that it has no in-seat TVs, lie-flat seats, or hot meals.
The Big question. Will the Cranky flier be doing a trip report when WN launches the first Red eye flight from LGB to BWI since the demise of JetBlue? Although must me noted the red eye from LGB will be short lived since WN with most recent schedule extensions has it as a Daytime operation still offering the same Northeast connections the red eye offered.
Jason. Hell. No. I hate redeyes so much.
Don’t hold back Brett tell us how you really feel about red eyes.
(I feel the same!)
The three airports in DC complement each other well, both geographically and demographically. BWI – catering to LCCs, DCA – to O&D domestic and IAD – O&D and connections for international. Each playing to its own strengths! BWI has been the busiest in the region for more than a decade, but I think IAD will soon become the busiest again (if everything MWAA and UA promise to come to fruition). IAD is on the right track – getting more domestic flights from UA (thanks to UA switching several feeder flights from EWR to IAD) and seasonal TATL flights for the summer. Also as MWAA is getting it better in bringing in new international carriers and ULCCs. Flying Avelo or Breeze from IAD would have been unthinkable a few year back. The CPE@IAD has come down (several reasons to it, couple of them being, a $50 mill subsidy from the state of VA + MWAA’s capital intensive Silver Line project is done). Frontier is back at IAD too (hope it stays this time). I would love to get an evening departure from IAD to DXB (either thru EK or UA). that would complement the morning EK departure. As for BWI, LUV is its strength and weakness! The airport is unable to land/hold TATL services (except BA). BWI will continue to thrive and the Washington-Baltimore area can comfortably support three airports.
“man years” – a new term of art in this new era? ;)
BWI’s updates look fantastic, however the fact that A/B/C are not linked to D/E can make transfers a bit of a challenge. Seems that should be their next goal to make connections a bit easier. I’m surprised they also haven’t put in a tram/people mover between the rail station/garage and terminal; I took the RE from Wilmington and got off, seems like my train had about 30 people going to the airport.
Southwest uses A/B/C with American, BermudAir, and Contour sharing some of C; none of those airlines use D/E*. All other airlines use D/E with no operations in A/B/C. *Southwest international arrivals do use E, but you have to exit, clear immigration and customs, and re-enter through security regardless of the terminal, so that’s not very relevant. So A/B/C & D/E connectivity doesn’t really matter but would still be nice to use the gym (D/E) or get access to better food options (A/B/C) regardless of your departure terminal
Shortest flight of my life – DCA to BWI back in the USAir hub days. DCA to PIT was cancelled so they put me on the regularly scheduled flight from DCA to BWI to catch the Pittsburgh flight from there. That was 25 years ago and my most recent visit to concourse D was like stepping back into that same time period.