Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) For the first time since 2005, the D.C. region’s three airports saw a collective increase in air travelers, but Dulles Airport still lags behind as Reagan National and Baltimore Washington International see steady growth.
Reagan National saw an 11 percent increase in air travelers from 2013 to 2015. BWI was up seven percent, but Dulles was down 1.3 percent, according to a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments report released this week.
Overall, after ten years staying flat, air travelers at all three airports combined went up from 32 million to 34.1 million, the report said.
The relative stagnation at Dulles has been a well-known issue, as Virginia officials announced an effort to bring more business to the airport. Right now, 34 percent of the region’s air travelers use Reagan National, 35 percent fly out of BWI, but just 31 percent choose Dulles. However, federal officials expect that number to go up.
“The FAA is forecasting that over 40 percent of the passengers by the year 2040 will be using Dulles,” COG’s Rich Roisman said. “Dulles and BWI have the room to grow. They have the land to expand. National, for all its popularity, is hemmed in by the river on all three sides.”
Dulles, however, has the largest share of international flights of any of the three airports. Roisman predicts the Silver Line’s eventual extension to Dulles should also help in the effort to bring more traffic there.
Reagan National, which benefits from a direct Metro connection, is seeing fewer Metro users getting to and from the airport.
“From 15 percent in 2013 to 12 percent in 2015,” Roisman said. “That’s a combination of the impact of Uber and its similar services, and it’s also due to the reliability issues associated with Metrorail.”
Even with the decrease, 12 percent still stands as one of the highest public transit usage rates of any airport in the country, Roisman said.
D.C.’s three airports are all within the top 30 in passenger traffic in the US, the report said. Only New York can make the same claim.
“That’s a positive for the region,” Roisman said. “We want to see all three airports having a strong presence. It really benefits the region and the economy.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: FlyDulles.com)
