A decade-long effort to increase flights to and from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport may gain new life Thursday when the Senate considers a compromise amendment that would add two dozen long-haul trips to the airport’s schedule. A fight over whether to boost traffic at Reagan National has stalled passage of Federal Aviation Administration legislation intended to improve safety and enhance consumer rights. One GOP senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, has threatened to vote against the FAA bill unless it includes a provision to increase Reagan’s flights to Western states. But lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia say increasing flights will hurt the region economically while serving mainly as a convenience for senators who want to get home more easily.
Hutchison and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., announced Wednesday that they drafted a compromise amendment that would add 24 new long distance flights that go beyond the airport’s 1,250-mile perimeter. Of those new slots, five round-trip flights would be awarded to airlines that now have little or no presence at Reagan, increasing overall air traffic.
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The amendment would also allow airlines already established at Reagan to convert existing short-distance flights to long distance, for a total of seven new round-trip, long-distance flights.
Rockefeller said numerous senators were consulted in crafting the compromise, suggesting that the amendment will garner the 60 votes needed to pass.
“It may not be perfect, but it represents an attempt to fairly balance the competing needs of members and their constituents inside and outside the perimeter,” Rockefeller said on the Senate floor.
The amendment isn’t likely to get any support from Maryland or Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, and Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin, Maryland Democrats, sent a letter last spring warning Rockefeller and others negotiating the FAA bill that they do not want Congress altering the perimeter rule at Reagan, mainly because it would economically threaten Washington Dulles International Airport 26 miles to the west and Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport, which is 33 miles to the north.
The letter, also signed by House members from Virginia and Maryland, warned that changing the perimeter rules “can have profound impacts both on operations at Dulles and BWI and on the economies of our home states and the region.”
The perimeter rule at Reagan was established in 1966 as a way to help promote business at Dulles International. Rockefeller, Hutchison and senators from many Western states believe the rule is antiquated, particularly since Dulles is a thriving airport.
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told The Washington Examiner, that if more flights are allowed at Reagan, it would damage Dulles economically and threaten the airport’s bond rating.
“The bond rating is tied to a certain volume and a certain number of flights,” Connolly said. “The more you take away flights from Dulles and give them to National for congressional convenience, the more you jeopardize the financial standing of Dulles Airport. Our understanding is the bond rating houses have warned us.”
