WASHINGTON — With more people choosing to fly out of Reagan National Airport than Dulles International Airport, politicians are urging Congress to maintain limits on flights out of DCA to help boost the number of passengers and dollars flowing through Dulles.
In a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate transportation committees, Sen. Mark Warner, Sen. Tim Kaine, Rep. Don Beyer, Rep. Barbara Comstock, Rep. Gerry Connolly and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton say Congressional permission for some long-haul flights from Reagan National to the West Coast, and other growth at the airport, has led to significant stress on the airport’s facilities.
“Many years, members of Congress … extend the perimeter rule — how far you can fly from National Airport — and increase the number of slots for incoming and outgoing airplanes, and both of these really help undermine Dulles Airport, and increase the noise and the business of Reagan National Airport,” Beyer says.
The Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization that Congress has used to make the changes for flights out of Reagan National and to add exceptions is now coming up again in Congress.
“We’re already at 1,250 miles, that’s far enough; we have enough slots, Dulles is already [one of] the most expensive airports in the country because so much of the business has fled from Dulles to National, or at least the growth has fled,” Beyer says.
Reagan National is in his district, and Beyer says more planes taking off and landing from Reagan National have just added to the noise people must deal with every day from the Potomac to Falls Church and Fairfax County.
According to the letter from the delegation, the number of passengers using Reagan National has grown 31 percent since 2000, while the number of passengers using Dulles Airport has dropped 9 percent. Just since 2012, the number of passengers at DCA has grown by 5.5 percent, and the number of passengers at Dulles has dropped 7.2 percent.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority operates both Reagan National and Dulles airports, and has been trying to stop the shift. Sen. Kaine said last month that he and Sen. Warner are “prepared to be jerks” to protect Dulles and slow down growth at Reagan National.
Many Virginia leaders says they believe a heavily used Dulles Airport can help keep the economy moving in Northern Virginia by helping to lure large companies to locate in the area, and by providing easy access for visitors.
But passenger counts at Reagan National are expected to beat out the numbers at Dulles this year. Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport is also expected to have more passengers this year than Dulles does.
This fall, MWAA announced plans for a new terminal for smaller, regional jets at DCA, along with plans to cover some of the higher costs associated with flights out of Dulles Airport by charging higher fees for airlines using Reagan National.
In addition to the airports, MWAA also operates the Dulles Toll Road and Dulles Access Road, and is responsible for construction of the Silver Line, which is now scheduled to reach Dulles Airport and Loudoun County in late 2019.
In the letter, the delegation says MWAA invested in Dulles Airport over the last 26 years with the expectation that flights and passenger counts would grow, so anything that would slow that growth could amount to a waste of that investment in the airport and Metro access.
“The bigger picture plan has been that Dulles is going to be our long-flight airport … and little by little that’s eroded as people wanted to get a convenient National flight to San Francisco, but there are a bunch of those already, we’re not trying to take any away, we just don’t want to expand it from where it is right now,” Beyer says.
A 2013 survey by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments found that people living in the District, much of Prince George’s County, and along the I-95 corridor in Northern Virginia preferred to fly out of Reagan National Airport, while only people in Loudoun County, western Fairfax County, western Prince William County, Fauquier County, Manassas and Manassas Park preferred Dulles.
Montgomery County preferences were divided among the region’s three airports, while people living in most other Maryland suburbs preferred BWI.
The letter does mention the importance of BWI to the region, but does not focus on it since BWI is not controlled by MWAA or the federal government. The letter does make a case for local control.
“Just as you would not want out-of-state Members dictating operations at your home state airports, we will strongly oppose efforts to make changes at airports that serve our communities and constituents,” the delegation writes.
All those who signed the letter are Democrats except for Republican Barbara Comstock whose district includes Dulles Airport.
