| Congressmen Burgess Owens (R-Utah) and Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) introduced a bill to expand daily flights at Washington-Reagan National Airport (DCA). "By limiting the number of flights in and out of National Airport, we are squeezing consumers — they are the ones paying the price," said Johnson, who is a senior member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. The airport currently restricts the number of flights over a distance of 1,250 miles. If the bill is passed,
advocacy groups estimate there would be between 800,000 and 1 million
passengers traveling to destinations outside the current allowed
area. The changes would add eight slots between the hours of 7 a.m. and
9:59 p.m. Currently, there are 10 routes flown by seven airlines to and
from DCA that are over the 1,250-mile threshold. The debate over the
bill goes beyond a matter of planning, with Delta advocating for the
change to gain long-haul market share from the capital region.
Two of the current exception routes are flown by Delta, serving Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, while Alaska Airlines has five exception routes, all over 2,300 miles. The route expansion bill is supported by the Delta-backed Capital Access Alliance group, which also includes a number of chambers of commerce from Texas and California, which may indicate the destinations to which the airline is planning to connect. Austin-Bergstrom is right outside the current perimeter, with a distance of 1,314 miles to DCA. Reagan National is not the only airport with a restriction. New York's LaGuardia Airport also has distance restrictions, with a 1,500-mile perimeter set in place in the 1980s to prevent overcrowding. LGA, however, has an exception on all flights to Denver and to all destinations on Saturdays.
Besides area residents concerned about noise pollution in the DCA vicinity, the perimeter exceptions expansion bill has its opposition in the airline industry, as United Airlines confirmed it is against the efforts of Delta's coalition. United operates long-haul flights from nearby Washington Dulles and supported a letter of opposition to changes at Reagan National written by Virginia Sen. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. |
