Tag Archives for washington national.
An American Airlines Airbus A319 had a near miss at Washington’s Reagan National airport on Wednesday. Flight 2134 to Boston was cleared for takeoff on runway 1, while a King Air was cleared to land. Air traffic control realized their mistake, cancelling takeoff clearance for the American Airlines flight – and telling the King Air to abort and go around. They couldn’t because they were already on the ground.
The recent FAA Reauthorization Bill contains 5 new roundtrips that DOT can assign ‘beyond the perimeter’ and airlines are jockeying for those. What’s odd, though is that Spirit Airlines is asking for National Airport to San Jose, the new slots are limited to incumbent airlines at the airport, and Spirit doesn’t serve National airport.
The current draft of the Senate’s FAA reauthorization bill includes 10 new beyond-perimeter slots for Washington’s National airport. Currently, flights out of that airport are restricted to 1,250 miles except for a handful of exceptions provided in law and handed out by the Department of Transportation.
The Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority is saying both will open in the second quarter of this year.
In this case more service out of National airport, especially to destinations that cannot currently legally have service, would benefit consumers from both a convenience and price perspective. So while Delta’s campaign serves its own interest (it always does) it happens to coincide with consumer interests.
Delta Air Lines has been lobbying to modify flight restrictions at Washington’s National Airport, specifically targeting the 1,250-mile perimeter rule that limits long-distance flights. Congress has been looking for a deal to give them something, not not all of what they want. United may have found a workaround so that no airline takes advantage of the new opportunities Congress provides.
Every piece on the new DC lounge highlights the fireplace feature of the lounge. It helps make the space. However American Airlines has shut off the fireplace in the lounge, staff say, ‘for the environment’.
In January 2021 I reported that American Express would open a Centurion lounge at Washington National airport, near the southern end of the B concourse. The entire terminal, with the exception of the A concourse (“banjo”) is connected behind security, so this will be accessible to eligible passengers flying on most airlines (all except Southwest, Frontier, and Air Canada). It’s been more than two and a half years, though, and there’s mostly been crickets.
Delta wanted 28 new roundtrips a day authorized, and of course they’d gain many of those for themselves. This faced significant pushback.
The issue here is what is best for passengers, not United’s shareholders which received nearly $10 billion in taxpayer cash already during the pandemic. United’s efforts at Washington Dulles have been subsidized for nearly 40 years. That’s too long rather than a justification for more subsidies at the expense of passenger choices and competition.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
