Dulles Airport Pokes Enjoyable At Widespread Airport Mixup In DC/Maryland/Virginia

Airlines, ride-share drivers, and customer support brokers within the Washington D.C. space have lengthy been conversant in a specific sort of panicked passenger: the one who arrives on the incorrect airport. Dulles International Airport (IAD) just lately poked enjoyable at this frequent mistake on social media, however for a lot of vacationers, the mix-up between IAD, Reagan National (DCA), and Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) isn’t any laughing matter.

On Friday, Dulles wrote, “Just an airport, standing in front of its passengers, asking them to double check which airport they are flying out of.” While laborious numbers on what number of vacationers make this particular mistake aren’t available, journey business professionals verify it occurs often. The downside is an ideal storm of things. All three airports serve the higher D.C. metropolitan space, however they’re geographically distinct, with IAD being in Virginia, DCA proper throughout the Potomac River from DC, and BWI being in Maryland.

A lapse in consideration when reserving a flight or getting into a vacation spot right into a GPS can simply ship a traveler on a doubtlessly hour-long journey to the incorrect terminal, typically with out sufficient time to right the error. The three-letter airport codes (IAD, DCA, BWI) aren’t intuitively associated, however the names themselves, Dulles, Reagan Washington National, and Baltimore-Washington International, is usually a supply of confusion, particularly for vacationers who aren’t conversant in the area.

This is especially true for many who may mistakenly hear “Dallas” as an alternative of “Dulles,” a mix-up that has additionally been reported. While the three airports provide distinct flight choices, with IAD dealing with nearly all of worldwide flights and DCA being restricted to largely home routes, these particulars are sometimes misplaced on the harried traveler, resulting in a scramble that may flip a trip or enterprise journey right into a journey nightmare.