Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (IATA: DCA, ICAO: KDCA, FAA LID: DCA), popularly called Reagan National Airport, Washington National, or, more simply, Reagan Airport or National Airport, is the smaller of two commercial airports operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority that serve the National Capital Region (NCR) around Washington, D.C., the larger airport being Washington Dulles International Airport approximately 30 miles (48 km) to the west in Virginia's Fairfax and Loudoun counties. Located on the west bank of the Potomac River just to the south of the 14th Street/I-395 Bridge in Arlington, Virginia, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is the nearest and most convenient commercial airport to the capital. Additionally, both the Blue Line and the Yellow Line of the "Metro" transit system operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) serve the airport via the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Station situated between the passenger terminal and a parking garage and connected to both via "skybridge" pedestrian walkways with moving sidewalks.
The airport's original name was Washington National Airport. The U. S. Congress adopted the present name to honor President Ronald Reagan in 1998. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) operates the airport with close oversight by the federal government due to its proximity to the national capital.
It is located in the neighborhood of Crystal City in the county of Arlington, Virginia, 5 miles (10 km) south of Downtown Washington. It covers 861 acres (348 ha) of land.
Reagan National is a hub for American Airlines which operates near-hourly air shuttle flights to Logan International Airport in Boston and New York LaGuardia Airport. Delta also operates near-hourly air shuttle flights to New York LaGuardia Airport which are all operated by Delta Shuttle. In the 12 months ending March 2015, the airport served 21,195,775 passengers.
Other than 40 slot exemptions, flights into and out of the airport are not allowed to exceed 1,250 statute miles (2,010 km) in any direction nonstop, in an effort to send coast-to-coast and overseas traffic to the larger but more distant Washington Dulles International Airport. The small size of this airport imposes serious constraints on its capacity. Commercial flights normally use Runway 1/19 (7169' x 150' / 2185 m x 46 m) exclusively, as the shorter Runway 15/33 (5204' x 150' / 1586 m x 46 m) and Runway 4/22 (5000' x 150' / 1524 m x 46 m) can accommodate them only under very windy conditions.
Reagan National has United States immigration and customs facilities only for business jet traffic. The only scheduled international flights allowed to land at the airport are those from airports with U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance facilities (which generally encompasses flights from major airports in Canada and from some destinations in the Caribbean, such as Bermuda). Other international passenger flights must use Washington Dulles International Airport or Baltimore–Washington International Airport.
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