Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was the nation?s 33rd-busiest airport in 2006, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The airport moved up three spots from its ranking of 36th in 2005 while seeing fewer flights in 2006. In 2006, BWI handled 307,669 arrivals and departures, down 0.69 percent from 309,801, according to the FAA data.
The decreased number of flights came at the same time BWI had a record number of passengers during 2006 and 2007, according to airport spokesman Jonathan Dean.
“[The number of flights and passengers are] directly and indirectly related,” Dean said. “The number of flights varies from month to month; it?s based on a demand as well as the airline schedules.”
Dean said the airport was compiling its own statistics for 2007, and they should be available in the next month.
For the third consecutive year, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport ranked as the nation?s busiest, with a 1.8 percent increase in flights to 980,386, according to FAA data. Dulles International Airport slid four spots to 14th nationally, with flights down 23 percent from the year before to 424,127. Reagan National Airport again ranked 41st, with flights increasing .01 percent to 278,471, according to the data.
