Baltimore-Washington International Airport reported its best quarterly passenger increase in four years yesterday. It moved more than 4 million passengers -- 11.3 percent more than in the same quarter last year.

Most of the increase came from passenger activity at Southwest Airlines and at MetroJet, the low-fare carrier launched by US Airways in June. Southwest and US Airways are BWI's largest carriers, and both added flights to new cities in the past year.

The airport's international service also grew for the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, increasing 26.1 percent from the same period last year. Passengers on Air Ontario increased 32.1 percent; British Airways, 8.7 percent.

The largest international carrier at BWI, the U.S. Department of Defense's Air Mobility Command, has carried more than 100,000 passengers so far this year, the Maryland Aviation Administration reported.

Air freight increased 19.6 percent for the quarter, attributed mostly to a nearly 82 percent increase in Federal Express traffic.

The total number of commercial flights at BWI was 63,549 for the quarter, an 8.7 percent increase from 1997.

Pub Date: 11/05/98