WASHINGTON—One of the U.S. Congress members pushing for additional flights at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) has introduced a compromise to his original proposal.
U.S. House Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) has introduced an amendment to his previously proposed legislation to add seven daily roundtrip flights from DCA instead of the original request for 28 daily flights. The additional flights would feature routes in and beyond the airport’s flight perimeter of 1,250 mi.
The proposed seven daily roundtrip flights equate to “one route for each airline currently operating out of DCA,” Owens said. The service would be “purely additive,” he noted, and would pose no threat to existing services.
Introduced in May, Owens’ initial proposal for the 28 additional roundtrip flights sparked controversy. Delta Air Lines and its fellow members of the Capital Access Alliance support the expansion while United Airlines and the Coalition To Protect America’s Regional Airports oppose additional fights at the airport. Each group has numerous members.
United Airlines has a large operation at nearby Washington Dulles airport. Data from Aviation Week’s CAPA show that United represents 68% of Dulles’ departing frequencies for the week of July 17.
After Owens proposed a lowered number of additional flights from DCA, Southwest Airlines said it supported the amendment. In a statement to Aviation Daily, the airline said the revision would increase daily flights out of DCA by 2%, “and we believe DCA has the capacity to handle a small increase in daily roundtrip flights.”
Southwest also said the additional seven slot pairs would increase competition and improve access from DCA and several cities that have inadequate service today.
Dallas-based Southwest is one of the eight airlines serving DCA and is the third-largest airline at the airport measured by departing frequencies with an 11.5% share. American Airlines is the largest with a share of 60.3% and Delta is second with its 12% share. Other airlines serving DCA are Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and United.
After Owens introduced the initial proposal for 28 roundtrip flights in May, the CEOs of Alaska, American and United warned in June that inclusion of the provisions would endanger timely passage of FAA Reauthorization, which expires Sept. 30. Labor unions expressed similar sentiments, warning issues such as additional service at DCA have a history of being so contentious they could endanger the rest of the FAA Reauthorization bill.
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