WASHINGTON — Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport saw a record 23 million passengers in 2015, its sixth consecutive record year for passengers, and Dulles International Airport reversed four straight years of a declining passenger count.
But BWI/Marshall Airport retained the title of the Washington region’s busiest airport.
Dulles saw 21.7 million total passengers, up 0.4 percent from 2014. International traffic rose to a record 7.2 million passengers.
Gains at Dulles came from new and expanded flights. Alaska Airlines began Dulles service last year, as did Aer Lingus.
British Airways started flying larger, double decker Airbus A380 jets out of Dulles.
South African Airways began service from Dulles to Accra last year, and Lufthansa increased service to Munich.
At Reagan National, slot divestitures as the result of the American Airlines merger with US Airways resulted in a 22.6 percent increase in Southwest Airlines flights and a 15.8 percent increase in JetBlue flights.
Despite National’s sixth consecutive record year, BWI still trumped DCA, with 23.8 million passengers, a 6.8 percent increase over 2014.
