What airport is BWI?
Why the code is BWI
Baltimore Washington International, adopted in 1973 when the airport rebranded to attract Washington traffic.
The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.
The airport
- IATA code
- BWI
- ICAO code
- KBWI
- Airport
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
- City
- Baltimore, United States
- Code origin
- Documented
It was Friendship International Airport with the code BAL until the state of Maryland bought it and renamed it to make clear it served Washington too. The rename worked: BWI is now a third Washington-area airport in practice, and the code change is one of the few in US history driven purely by marketing.
Codes it used to have
| Code | Until | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| BAL | 1973 | From Baltimore. Changed when the airport rebranded to claim the Washington market. |
The other code, KBWI
Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, BWI, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, KBWI, is the one pilots and controllers use, and it is assigned geographically: the first letter or two identify the region, so every airport in the same part of the world shares a prefix. That is why KBWI looks nothing like BWI.
Common questions
- What airport is BWI?
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, in Baltimore, United States.
- Why is Baltimore's airport called BWI?
- Baltimore Washington International, adopted in 1973 when the airport rebranded to attract Washington traffic.
- What is the difference between BWI and KBWI?
- BWI is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. KBWI is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.
Related pages
- United States Capital, area, population and currency
- The flag of United States Colours, symbols and lookalikes
- Airport codes in United States 32 here
- What airport is JFK? John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York
- What airport is LAX? Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles
- What airport is ORD? O'Hare International Airport, Chicago
- What airport is ATL? Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta
- What airport is MCO? Orlando International Airport, Orlando
- What airport is DFW? Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Dallas
- What airport is EWR? Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark
- What airport is SFO? San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place