PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT serves the greater Philadelphia region as the primary airport for the nation’s seventh-largest metropolitan area. Handling roughly 30 million passengers each year, PHL supports 25 airlines—including all major U.S. carriers—and offers nearly 500 daily departures to about 130 destinations worldwide. Located just seven miles from downtown, the airport provides convenient access to the city’s business districts, cultural institutions, and tourist attractions.
Operated without local tax funding, PHL is financially self-sustaining and remains a major economic driver for the region. The airport generates approximately $15.4 billion in annual economic impact and supports more than 96,000 full-time jobs across Pennsylvania and neighboring areas.
PHL’s terminals contain about 3.25 million square feet of space across seven terminal buildings with 124 boarding gates. Major carriers at the airport include American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier, and United Airlines. Nationally, Philadelphia International ranks among the top 20 airports for passenger volume and aircraft movements.
The airport continually invests in facility improvements and passenger amenities. In 2010 PHL completed a $45 million expansion of Terminal E that added seven gates, a 500-seat waiting area, a compact food court, and new permanent artwork. In 2013 the redesigned Terminal F Hub opened, introducing 20 new dining and retail shops, a 300-seat food court, additional artwork installations, and an upgraded bus shelter. The E–F Secure Connector, opened in 2015, enables passengers to move between terminals and gates without re-clearing security. A new Terminal F baggage claim building opened in 2016 as part of a $127 million renovation and expansion; the $25 million baggage claim facility was also PHL’s first LEED Gold-certified project.
In 2017 PHL and American Airlines announced a joint investment of $900 million to advance infrastructure and capacity improvements at Philadelphia International and Philadelphia Northeast Airport (PNE) over the following five to seven years. Those projects were projected to generate nearly $4 billion in regional economic output and support roughly 5,100 ongoing jobs during the development period.
Included in the investment is a $32.8 million redesign of Terminal B, which added more than a thousand iPads for ordering and introduced new dining and retail options inside the secure zone. The refreshed concessions program includes a variety of offerings such as a French pastry shop, a German-style beer garden, and an Italian restaurant, giving travelers expanded choices while waiting for flights.
Philadelphia’s cultural heritage is reflected throughout the airport. In 2011 PHL partnered with Mural Arts Philadelphia to unveil How Philly Moves, the largest mural in the United States by square footage completed by that program. The mural celebrates the city’s dance traditions by depicting 26 dancers in diverse styles across the façades of the airport’s parking garages.
The airport has also expanded its route network with new carriers and services in recent years. From 2012 through 2017 carriers such as Alaska Airlines, Spirit, and JetBlue began service at PHL. In 2014 Qatar Airways launched daily nonstop service to Doha, becoming the first foreign flag carrier to begin operations at Philadelphia in more than a decade. Icelandair introduced seasonal flights in 2017, and Aer Lingus began nonstop service to Dublin in March of that year. As of late 2017, PHL offered more than 120 nonstop routes connecting passengers to domestic and international destinations.