Philadelphia International Airport

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Philadelphia International Airport (IATA: PHL, ICAO: KPHL, FAA LID: PHL) is an airport in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is the largest airport in the Delaware Valley region and in Pennsylvania. The airport is the primary international hub of US Airways and has service to destinations in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. It is the airlines' second largest hub. Most of the airport property is located in Philadelphia proper. The international terminal and the western end of the airfield are located in Tinicum Township, Delaware County.

With 499,653 total flight movements in 2008, Philadelphia International Airport ranks 11th in world in terms of aircraft movement. As recently as 2006, the airport ranked 9th in terms of aircraft movement, but was passed in 2007 by Charles de Gaulle International Airport and by Charlotte/Douglas International Airport. It does not rank in the top 30 rankings for either passenger or cargo movement. In 2008, the airport handled a total of 31.8 million passengers, which for passenger movement would rank it several places behind Charlotte (#30), which handled 33.1 million passengers in 2008. The world's busiest airport in terms of passenger movement in 2008 was Atlanta's Hartfield International Airport with 90,039,280 passengers, nearly three times the passengers that passed through Philadelphia International Airport the same year. Statistics on passenger origination and termination (with PHL airport as an originating or final destination) are not widely available.

Philadelphia International Airport is important to Philadelphia, its metropolitan region and the Commonwealth of 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. PHL alone accounted for $14 billion or 63% of total. The calculations include both direct spending and the multiplier effect of that spending throughout the state's economy.

 Philadelphia International Airport has seven terminal buildings, which are divided into seven lettered concourses. Terminals A East and A West, B, C, D, and E are all interconnected, and it is possible to travel through all of these airside. Terminal F, completed in 2003, is separate from these terminals but can be reached by airside shuttle buses between Terminal F and Terminal C using gate C16, an old US Airways Express gate and between Terminal F and Terminal A, at gate A1. There is a large shopping/dining area between Concourses B and C.

Ongoing construction at the airport will add new passenger facilities between Terminals D and E, connecting E to the rest of the Terminal complex.

source:wikipedia