ARLINGTON, Va. — The DCA runway is the busiest in the nation, but could it be getting busier? Well, not if the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has anything to say about it.
They are urging Congress to defeat proposals to add up to 28 new flights at Reagan National Airport. This would increase the heavy congestion on its single main runway.
DCA is the smallest of three major airports serving the Washington, D.C. area, averaging 819 daily takeoffs and landings on its relatively short main runway, according to MWAA. This makes it the most heavily utilized runway in the U.S.
“DCA operates at full capacity, with a takeoff or landing every minute, for much of the day,” said Airports Authority President and CEO Jack Potter. “Adding more flights to this already-packed schedule would lead to more delays, which would result from the need to accommodate the spacing between aircraft operations that is required to assure safety.”
After DCA is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) with 781 takeoffs, followed by Newark Liberty International (EWR) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD). Potter said the runway statistics, based on published airline schedules and data from the Federal Aviation Administration, dispel claims by supporters of additional DCA flights that the airport is “underutilized.”
“How can anyone credibly say that Washington’s smallest airport, with the busiest runway in America, is underutilized?” he said. “Anyone who uses Reagan National sees the steady stream of aircraft throughout the day and has experienced the long lines of planes waiting to take off or arriving flights waiting for gate space, especially in bad weather.”
Potter also stated that DCA already serves 24 million passengers each year, which is more than Washington Dulles International or Baltimore-Washington airports. An increase in flights would cause more delays, crowding, congestion, and stress on airport facilities.
According to Rob Yingling, the spokesperson for MWAA, "Reagan National Airports runways intersect so you can only operate one landing or take off at a time. Additionally most planes can only use the longest runway which is only 6800 feet. Dulles has four runways of nearly 11,000 feet which can operate simultaneously".
“While DCA is very popular because of its proximity to Capitol Hill, it simply cannot accommodate all the flights that airlines want to send to Washington,” Potter said.