Loudoun Business - Delegation Urges Congress to Keep Dulles/National Flight Balance

News Article

By Scott McCaffrey

Members of the Northern Virginia congressional delegation are pleading with colleagues to keep from further fiddling with the delicate balance among the region's three major airports.

In a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate committees responsible for transportation, the area lawmakers said continued congressional meddling is having a negative impact both on the airports and the regional economy.

"Just as you would not want out-of-state members [of Congress] dictating operations at your home-state airports, we will strongly oppose efforts to make changes at airports that serve our communities and constituents," said the letter, released May 5.

It was signed by U.S. Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) and U.S. Reps. Don Beyer (D-8th), Barbara Comstock (R-10th) and Gerald Connolly (D-11th), along with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.)

The local legislators may be fighting an uphill battle: Members of Congress from west of the Mississippi River have worked eagerly to loosen flight restrictions at Reagan National, giving both their constituents--and themselves--easier access to Capitol Hill from their home states.

In the past three congressional reauthorization bills for the Federal Aviation Administration, additional opportunities have been inserted for airlines to skirt the once sacrosanct 1,250-mile perimeter for flights using Reagan National. Today, flights to as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle are now easy to find at the close-in airport, which local leaders suggest is impacting both Washington Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports.
Changes to the flight rules at Reagan National "can have profound impacts both on operations at Dulles International and BWI, and on the economies of our home states and region," the letter from the local delegation said.

Regional leaders seem to agree that imposing and maintaining a balance between Reagan National and Dulles is needed. An April forum brought Gov. McAuliffe and other leaders to Aol's campus in Loudoun County in an effort to brainstorm ideas for improving economic conditions around Dulles, which has seen passenger totals fall from 27 million in 2006 to 21.6 million in 2014.

At Reagan National, meanwhile, records have been set each of the past five years, with a passenger total of 20.8 million in 2015. It's possible National's passenger count this year could top that at Dulles.

The two airports' combined passenger count of 42.4 million in 2014 was statistically flat from a year before, even as enplanements nationally grew 2.7 percent, according to the Airlines for America trade group.

In 1986, Congress turned over operation of National and Dulles to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, but retained ownership--and therefore ultimate control. The Airports Authority has only limited say on big-ticket decisions, ranging from the flight perimeter to the name of the airports themselves. (Congress added "Reagan" to Washington National Airport in the 1990s; President Clinton signed the legislation over the disapproval of some local leaders.)

The growth at Reagan National is straining the airport's infrastructure, as it is landlocked and occupies a footprint just one-sixteenth the size of Dulles. Airport officials recently announced plans to add a new pier north of existing gates, part of an effort to ease terminal congestion for passengers taking regional-jet flights who now are bused to their aircraft.

To gain federal regulatory approval for its merger, US Airways and American Airlines last year agreed to divest a number of landing and takeoff slots at Reagan National, with those slots going to airlines with less of a presence at the facility. The result has been significant growth of Southwest, JetBlue and Virgin America at National, but the combined US Airways/American remains the dominant carrier there.

Despite its own cutbacks, United Airlines has retained its dominance at Dulles, having not been seriously challenged there since the now-defunct Independence Air was flying in the early-to-mid 2000s.

Most of the declining passenger counts at Dulles have been on the domestic side, with United reducing its overall flights and other carriers moving some operations to Reagan National or BWI. International travel from Dulles largely has been on an upswing in recent years.

Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, located between the two cities, is operated by the Maryland state government. Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier there, operating about 70 percent of scheduled service.

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