Maryland on Stamps & Covers
Friendship Airport Dedication
Richard D. L. Fulton
A special cover was issued, commemorating the dedication in recognition of the opening of the Friendship International Airport, which had been located nine miles south of Baltimore in Anne Arundel County, on June 24, 1950.
Celebratory covers, such as the Friendship International Airport cover, were not printed by the United States Postal Service (USPS), but rather, produced by organizations or other entities. However, the Friendship airport covers issued on the date of the opening of the airport were postmarked at the post office located at the Friendship International Airport.
A variety of stamps were used by the senders—depending on the sender’s preference—on the covers, the one depicted had employed the standard, six-cent airmail stamp.
According to the Maryland Center for History and Culture’s website, the airport was named after the Friendship United Methodist Church, located in the unincorporated community of Friendship.
But in 1949, as construction of the airport progressed, a debate continued as to what role the new airport would play in the grand scheme of things. Many legislators were concerned about the congestion of commercial air traffic, mixed with military air traffic, which had been experienced at the existing Washington National Airport.
Debate continued back and forth through 1949 as to whether the Friendship Airport (then also referred to as the Friendship Church Airport) would be of help with the congestion issues, or if it would complicate matters, or have no impact at all, according to articles published in The Baltimore Sun on November 5, 9, and 11, 1949. Ultimately, as completion progressed, Friendship Airport prevailed as serving as “co-terminal,” and then became referred to as the Friendship International Airport in the process.
Upon opening on June 24, 1950, the estimated cost of the construction was over $15 million dollars, according to the June 24, 1950, edition of The Baltimore Sun. The facility had four runways, three of which were 150 to 200 feet wide. Two of those runways were 6,500 feet in length, and the third was 10,000 feet in length. The terminal and runways were sited on 3,300 acres of “obstruction-free land (according to a Friendship International Airport advertisement).
The airport was officially dedicated on June 24, with considerable fanfare, and was attended by around 10,000 individuals, including keynote speaker, President Harry S. Truman, according to the June 24 edition of The Sun newspaper, scheduled airline service did not actually begin until August.
At the end of his eight-minute speech, Truman concluded with, “Now I dedicate the Friendship National Airport to the growth and development of our country. I dedicate this great airport to the cause of peace in our world.” The airport was then blessed by the then-Archbishop of Baltimore, Francis Patrick Keough, who then, following the blessing ceremony, became the first high-rankling Catholic cleric to surveil an archdiocese from the air, The Sun had reported.
During 1972, the State of Maryland, via the state Department of Transportation (MDOT), purchased Friendship International Airport from the City of Baltimore for $36-million dollars, according to bwiairport.com, resulting in the State Aviation Administration then assuming control of the airport operations.
In 1973, Friendship International Airport was renamed, as then being Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), and significant major upgrades then commenced, stretching into the 21st century.
In 2005, BWI was renamed Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to honor Supreme Court Justice and Marylander Thurgood Marshall.
In January 2025 (the most recent statistics posted on the BWI website), BWI, sometimes referred to as BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, reported that the airport’s total passenger count in January was 1,616,414 individuals (a decrease of 9.8 percent from the preceding January), that they transported a total of 37 million pounds of cargo (a decrease of 10 percent from the preceding January), and that they experienced 17,070 flights (a decrease of 6.4 percent from the preceding January), according to the BWI website.
