Utah Republican Representative Blake D. Moore is pushing for changes to federal law that would allow more nonstop flights between Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Salt Lake City. Those flights, he said, would increase tourism between Utah and the nation’s capital.
They would also provide Mr. Moore with a more efficient commute.
When he heads home from Capitol Hill, Mr. Moore often waits for the only direct flight in the afternoon or evening from one of three Washington-area airports that can get him to Salt Lake City in time to put his kids in. : An Air Lines Delta Departures from Reagan National, also known as DCA, after 5:00 PM and lands around 8:00 PM. An earlier departure would allow him to fulfill his duties as a legislator but also as a father, Mr. dinner or attend Little League practice.
“We need more direct flights from DCA,” he said.
In recent weeks, dozens of lawmakers have joined the push for 28 new round trips per day at Reagan National. Bringing attention to their cause with opinion essays, tweet and proposed legislation, they argue that these additional routes — which would require amending a decades-old law that prohibits most flights from traveling more than 1,500 miles to or from Reagan National — would satisfy pent-up demand, lower airfares, and create new would create jobs.
Their push, fueled by a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign sponsored by Delta, aims to implement changes as part of legislation that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for another five years.
The effort to relax the so-called perimeter rule has been mired in battles for market share among airlines, local politics in the Washington area, and friction over the FAA’s chronic and worsening problems with air traffic management and safety.
But unlike many of Washington’s special battles, this one has personal implications for legislators — or at least those who commute home each week to points in the west that aren’t easily accessible from Reagan National, located across the street. of the Potomac River from downtown Washington. and a short drive from Capitol Hill. (Another Washington area airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, is about 25 miles west.)
“I would absolutely support” additional direct flights from Reagan National to points outside the current 1,250-mile zone, Montana Democrat Senator Jon Tester said, adding that he would need to see more details before supporting any particular bill.
Mr. Tester described his commute — which involves a 90-minute predawn drive from his farm near Big Sandy, Mont., to Great Falls International Airport and a stopover in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City or Denver — as ” annoying. “
Representative Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican and one of the lawmakers seeking to allow more long-haul flights from Reagan National, said he recently missed one from Salt Lake City to Washington and had to wait a day and a half for another.
In the end, he had to fly to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, about 25 miles northeast of Capitol Hill, and take an hour-long Uber ride to his office. “Unfortunately, many Utah residents and Americans from the West are denied access to their representatives, our nation’s historic sites and federal agencies,” he said at an event outside the Capitol to promote legislation to allow additional flights.
It’s not clear whether law and order will be affected in this case by whether members of Congress should be able to avoid inconvenient connecting flights or have more options at a nearby airport. And there are other things at play.
Lawmakers from Maryland and Virginia, the states most affected by increased flights to and from Reagan National, have argued that the airport in Arlington, Virginia — a place an energetic traveler can walk to from the Lincoln Memorial — is already standing pressured by traffic, limited parking and stressed baggage systems.
“At this point, DCA already has the busiest airstrip in the country,” Representative Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat who opposes the proposed perimeter exceptions, said in a statement. “I am also concerned after a recent FAA analysis found that more long-haul flights at DCA would unbalance the airport’s operational performance.”
United Airlines and American Airlines, Delta’s biggest competitors, are also opposed to relaxing the perimeter rule. Those airlines argue that additional long-haul flights on Reagan National would cause passenger delays and could even get in the way of re-approval from the FAA. And if the perimeter changes are implemented, there will likely be another industry battle over which new routes may eventually be offered.
In an internal memo in May, the FAA wrote that adding long-haul flights to Reagan National’s schedule without taking away the existing ones would put pressure on the system. Reagan National already ranks 10th among U.S. airports with delays, the memo said.
But supporters of the shift view their own unwieldy commutes as evidence of a system in need of improvement.
In April, Delta formed a nonprofit organization, the Capital Access Alliance, to advocate for adding new exceptions to the perimeter rule, which dates back to 1966 and has been updated occasionally over the years.
Joined by small businesses; West Coast companies such as Columbia Sportswear and Adidas; and trade associations in states like Utah, Texas and Washington, the alliance says the perimeter rule has outlived its usefulness as a bulwark against airport congestion and competition that could have hurt Dulles — which opened in 1962 — in its early years.
The group also says the congestion issues the FAA has identified are irrelevant at certain times of the day, creating an opening for new flights.
Delta also hopes to launch lucrative new long-haul flights to and from Reagan National, where its current market share is 14 percent, according to an analysis commissioned by the airline by the Boston Consulting Group. Delta officials say they hope to establish or expand service to cities including Austin, Texas; Salt Lake City; and Seattle.
Delta has hired influential lobbyist Jeff Miller, known for listening to speaker Kevin McCarthy, to help her case.
Jamie Baker, an aviation analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Company, said that while it’s too early to predict the financial implications of exceptions to the perimeter rule for major airlines like Delta, the changes could lead to reduced service to smaller cities from Reagan National .
Defenders of the perimeter rule have emphasized that possibility.
“Cities and states that rely on easy, timely access to Washington as a destination or connection are at risk of losing access,” a nonprofit organization called the Coalition to Protect America’s Regional Airports says on its website. The group is backed by United and dozens of smaller airports and trade groups, many of them within the current 2,000-mile radius.
But the long journeys lawmakers can take on their way to Washington seem to have inspired some to push for new exceptions to the existing limits.
In May, Representative Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Delta’s home state of Georgia, and Mr. Owens, the Republican from Utah, passed legislation that would allow 28 new daily round trips at Reagan National. Senators Raphael Warnock, also a Democrat from Georgia, and Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, introduced a similar bill to the Senate in June.
“DCA’s operations will remain as they were structured in the 1960s to protect Dulles International Airport’s ability to grow,” Mr. Johnson said. “Those ideals have now outlived their usefulness.”
Among those seeking to relax the perimeter rule is Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who wants to see direct flights between Reagan National and San Antonio, parts of which are in his congressional district.
Mr. Roy can take a direct flight from Austin to Reagan National, he said, but sometimes that flight doesn’t arrive early enough to hold House Rules Committee meetings, forcing him to use Dulles or Baltimore/Washington instead.
“It’s a little awkward,” Mr. Roy said.
Arizona Senator John McCain sought to relax Reagan National’s perimeter restrictions in the late 1990s and get rid of the rule entirely in the late 2000s. While Mr. McCain was unable to eliminate the rule, he did manage to win new exceptions to create flights from Reagan National to Phoenix in the process. However, he continued to take flights home with connections to avoid self-dealing accusations.
The impact of pressure from Mr McCain, who died in 2018, has been so great that Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican from the Phoenix area, has refused to support efforts by some of her House colleagues to relax the perimeter rule, fearing that it could backfire on Arizona.
“We already have several direct flights to Phoenix,” said Ms. Lesko, who flies direct to Reagan National, with a chuckle, “and so opening it up to, say, Utah or something might reduce the number of direct flights to Phoenix. So for my constituents, I don’t think I would sign that bill.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
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