ARLINGTON, Va. — A bruising verbal battle between the D.C. area congressional delegation and advocates of bringing more flights to Reagan National Airport has ended in defeat for those looking to maintain the status quo.
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to approve the final passage of a sweeping five-year FAA reauthorization bill which includes a section permitting five additional roundtrip flights, or slots, for airlines at Reagan National.
The bill now heads to President Biden's desk where he is expected to sign off as early as Thursday.
Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. politicians have brought forth considerable concern over the past several weeks as the proposal wound its way through both the House and Senate, but advocates say the airport CAN safely handle these additional flights.
Northern Virginia's Brian Walsh is with the Capital Access Alliance, a group representing transportation and business leaders in Virginia and across the country. They've been pushing to get the additional flights at DCA.
"Really this is about giving air travelers more choices and hopefully lower ticket prices," he said.
As recently as Tuesday, Virginia politicians have continued to call on Congress to remove the provision that adds the additional flights.
"I cannot support a bill that hurts my constituents, disrespects all the elected leaders of Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., and directly harms our airport and the passengers who use it," said northern Virginia Democrat, Rep. Don Beyer. "We've heard from Secretary Buttigieg, the FAA, and the airport authority they have serious concerns about safety and increased delays if more flights are added."
Walsh says concerns expressed about compromised safety and increased delays wouldn't come to fruition.
"I don't think anyone involved in advocating more flights would ever put safety at risk," said Walsh. "We have FAA data that makes clear that in at least three time blocks per day, DCA is underutilized."
An earlier version of the FAA bill actually called for 28 more slots at DCA, which would have been 56 more takeoffs and landings. Five slots was a bi-partisan compromise worked out among congressional leaders.
Within 60 days of President Biden signing the bill into law, The Department of Transportation will announce which airlines and destinations will get those five additional slots. It's widely expected that San Antonio and San Diego will be two of the new cities getting direct flights to DCA.
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