Philadelphia International Airport

Philadelphia International Airport (IATA: PHL, ICAO: KPHL, FAA LID: PHL) is the primary international airport serving Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It served 30.8 million passengers annually in 2024, making it the busiest airport in Pennsylvania and the 21st-busiest airport in the United States. The airport is located 7 miles (11 km) from the city's downtown area and has 22 airlines that offer nearly 500 daily departures to more than 130 destinations worldwide.

The airport is the fifth-largest hub for American Airlines and serves as American Airlines' primary hub in the Northeastern United States and its primary European and transatlantic gateway. The airport is also a regional cargo hub for UPS Airlines and a focus city for Frontier Airlines. The airport has service to cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East. As of 2019, the airport offers flights to 140 destinations, 102 of which are domestic and 38 of which international.

Much of the airport property is in the city of Philadelphia. Terminal A, the international terminal, and the western and southern ends of the airfield are in Tinicum Township, Delaware County. PHL covers 2,302 acres (932 ha) and has four runways.

Philadelphia International Airport is an important component of the economies of the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth's Aviation Bureau reported in its Pennsylvania Air Service Monitor that the total economic impact made by the state's airports in 2004 was $22 billion. In 2017, the airport commissioned a new economic impact report, which found that it accounted for $15.4 billion in economic activity, $5.4 billion in total earnings, and over 96,000 direct and indirect jobs. In October 2022, the airport gained a direct connection to a Colonial Pipeline fuel supply.

Starting in 1925, the Pennsylvania National Guard used the present airport site (known as Hog Island) as a training airfield. The site was dedicated as the "Philadelphia Municipal Airport" by Charles Lindbergh in 1927, but it had no proper terminal building until 1940; airlines used Camden Central Airport in nearby Pennsauken Township, New Jersey. Once Philadelphia's terminal was completed (on the east side of the field) American, Eastern, TWA, and United moved their operations here.

In 1947 and 1950, the airport had runways 4, 9, 12 and 17, all 5,400 feet (1,600 m) or less. In 1956 runway 9 was 7,284 feet (2,220 m); in 1959 it was 9,499 feet (2,895 m) and runway 12 was closed. Not much changed until the early 1970s, when runway 4 was closed and 9R opened with 10,500 feet (3,200 m).

On June 20, 1940, the airport's weather station became the official point for Philadelphia weather observations and records by the National Weather Service.

During World War II the United States Army Air Forces used the airport as a First Air Force training airfield.