US Airways was last week awarded permanent authority to operate daily, non-stop service between Mississippi's capital city, Jackson, and Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport by the US Department of Transportation (DOT). The carrier has been flying the route for almost five months under temporary authority from the DOT and is the only non-stop service linking the State of Mississippi to the nation's capital.

“We are honoured by the Department's decision to award US Airways the authority to operate service between Jackson and Washington, D.C. permanently,” said Doug Parker, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, US Airways. “I want to thank Secretary LaHood and others on his staff for a fair and thorough review of our application. Thanks to their work and the support of the Mississippi Congressional delegation and community leaders, business, government, military and leisure travelers in the Magnolia State will continue to have a direct link to our nation's capital and connections to other destinations throughout the East Coast.”

US Airways launched operations between Jackson and Reagan National on March 4, 2012 and the route is flown under the US Airways Express brand by Republic Airlines using a two-class 69-seat Embraer 170. This is US Airways’ second route into Jackson-Evers International Airport, named after Medgar Evers, the former Mississippi Field Secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), alongside a link to Charlotte operated by PSA Airlines. The Jackson – Reagan National route was previously flown by Delta Air Lines between January 2005 and March 2012 using regional jet equipment of Comair and ExpressJet Airlines.

In 2011 an estimated 26,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route between Mississippi and the nation’s capital, a 0.9 per cent decline on the previous year. During the first five months of this year, a period during which the operator on the route changed, there has been growth with approximately 11,000 O&D passengers flying between the cities, up 1.7 per cent on the same period last year.