Reagan National (DCA) is much closer. It sits in Arlington, Virginia, roughly 4 to 5 miles from downtown Washington, with a direct Metro connection via the Blue and Yellow lines. Dulles (IAD) is about 26 miles west of the city in Loudoun County, Virginia, a 35-minute drive on a good day.
In brief
Reagan National (DCA) is the closer airport, by a significant margin. It sits in Arlington, Virginia, roughly 4 to 5 miles from downtown Washington. Dulles (IAD) is about 26 miles west of the city, in Loudoun County, Virginia. That gap shapes everything: your commute, your transit options, and even which flights you can book.
How far is each airport from DC, exactly?
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is approximately 4 miles from downtown, while Washington Dulles International Airport is about 26 miles away. The straight-line distance from DCA to the center of the city is even shorter: about 4 miles as the crow flies. Dulles, by contrast, requires a 26-mile drive.
Put another way, the two airports are 23.4 miles apart from each other, and almost all of that distance is Dulles pulling farther from the city. DCA is located across the border in Crystal City, Virginia. Dulles sits in Dulles, Virginia, well past the Beltway.
Getting into the city: Metro tells the full story
Distance on paper is one thing. Travel time is what most passengers care about.
At Reagan National, Metro's Yellow Line and Blue Line access DCA, closer to the airport than the parking lots. The Metro station is directly attached to Terminal 2 via covered pedestrian bridges, making it one of the most convenient airport Metro connections in the U.S. Both the Blue and Yellow lines reach the core downtown area in 12 to 15 minutes.
Dulles added Metro access when the Silver Line extension opened. Each ride to Dulles takes about an hour from downtown DC. That's roughly four times the transit time from Reagan. A taxi from Dulles to DC runs $75 to $95 and takes about 35 minutes without heavy traffic. From Reagan, a taxi from baggage claim costs $15 to $20.
Flight options: where DCA falls short
Proximity to the Capitol is exactly why Reagan operates under strict limits. Flights to and from DCA are restricted by a statutory 'perimeter rule' that limits nonstop flights to a 1,250-mile distance unless they are granted a waiver by law. The perimeter rule dates to the opening of Washington Dulles International Airport in the early 1960s and was originally designed to move most long-distance airline traffic serving the Washington, DC area to IAD.
Congress has chipped away at the rule over the decades. As a result of federal exemptions, nonstop service is now offered between Reagan National and Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon. But those are exceptions, not the rule. Anything beyond the Midwest typically requires a connection at DCA.
Dulles has no such limits. Dulles is the primary international airport for the DC region, with almost 157 nonstop domestic and international destinations on nearly 40 airlines, and it is a major hub for United Airlines.
The practical answer for most DC travelers
If you're flying somewhere within the eastern half of the country and want the shortest trip to your hotel or meeting, DCA is the obvious choice. You step off the plane, take a covered walkway to the Metro platform, and you're at Metro Center in about 15 minutes. No Uber surge, no traffic on the Dulles Toll Road.
If you need a long-haul international flight, or you're going somewhere on the West Coast that DCA doesn't serve nonstop, Dulles is worth the extra drive. With considerably shorter runways and its proximity to key buildings like the White House, the Pentagon, and the Capitol, DCA operates under significant restrictions.
Travelers at Reagan can often go from curb to gate in less than 30 minutes, a rare convenience in modern air travel. At Dulles, budget more time: the airport is large, the terminals are spread out, and if you're driving, the trip from Dulles to downtown DC takes approximately 35 minutes in light traffic, and considerably longer during rush hour on the Dulles Toll Road.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
