A record number of passengers traveled through Reagan National Airport last year and international travel at Dulles International Airport grew for the 13th consecutive year, according to new figures released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operates the two airports.
“Reagan National has set new passenger records for six years straight, 2016 being no different,” said MWAA spokesman Rob Yingling.
Throughout the year, 23.6 million passengers traveled through Reagan National.
Dulles set a record for international travelers with 7.5 million and saw modest growth on its domestic flights, pushing the total number of airport passengers to around 22 million.
The airports authority has, in recent years, focused its efforts on making Dulles more competitive by reducing costs to the airlines that serve it and “correcting structural imbalances between the two airports that have resulted in record growth at Reagan National at the expense of Dulles International,” according to MWAA.
Overall, the number of travelers — 45.6 million — who flew in and out of both airport in 2016 was the highest passenger total the airports authority has ever seen.
In 2015, the two-airport system served 44.7 million passengers, an increase of 5.4 percent when compared with 2014.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Nick Iannelli over at WTOP