Connecting mights: business and BWI Airport join forces to promote Maryland's economy. (Baltimore/Washington International Airport) (Regional Report: Baltimore-Washington International Airport)

Business and bwi Airport Join Forces to Promote Maryland's Economy

Connecting Mights

MARYLAND OFFICIALS HAVE BIG PLANS for Baltimore/Washington International Airport, the state-run airport in Anne Arundel County. And they're getting big help from a recently revived group of business representatives.

After a few desultory years, the BWI Development Council, a volunteer support and advisory group, has been revitalized. It has a dynamic new chairman, revamped committees that meet regularly, and a renewed sense of purpose.

"It's a redirection, a new approach, if you will," says H. Joseph Edwards, who was the council's first chairman 10 years ago. He resumed the position in June 1989. "We want to help make BWI a hub of the Baltimore-Washington corridor. We want it to be involved in developing that corridor as it could be."

Maryland officials already consider BWI an invaluable asset in everything from attracting foreign trade and tourists to bolstering the state's work force. A study three years ago estimated that BWI generates $1.3 billion for the state annually. And the airport, like the Washington-Baltimore corridor that surrounds it, is growing steadily and impressively.

BWI CURRENTLY AVERAGES 670 FLIGHTS a day, an all-time high. The number of …