San Diego has a chance to secure a coveted non-stop flight to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, thanks to a new federal law that will open up much-needed slots at an airfield outside Washington, D.C.
Alaska Airlines this week announced plans to compete for one of five new nonstop flights from DCA, specifically naming San Diego as a destination. The company already offers nonstop flights from Reagan National Park to four of his other destinations on the West Coast: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
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In an emailed statement to the Union-Tribune, Alaska Airlines said, “We are satisfied with our existing service to DCA, but now that slots become available, we are taking advantage of this opportunity to make strong applications to connect San Diego.” “We are submitting the following.” “We applied for the San Diego flight because the last time slot was available at DCA. We look forward to serving the community this time.”
San Diego is the single largest market in the United States without nonstop service to Reagan National Airport. Although there are airlines that fly regularly between San Diego and Dulles and Baltimore airports without stopping, Reagan National Airport, just eight miles from the capital, is much more convenient.
“The San Diego region has been waiting a very long time for the opportunity to resume nonstop service to Reagan National Airport,” said Kim Becker, president and CEO of San Diego Airport. “We continue to work with Alaska Airlines, the San Diego Congressional Delegation, and Mayor Todd Gloria to ensure we can secure critical nonstop service between the nation's capital and San Diego for the benefit of our region's defense, technology, and tourism industries. looking forward to it.”
Flights from Reagan National Park have been heavily regulated for years. As a small national airport, it is subject to border rules that limit nonstop flights to and from Washington to 1,250 miles, unless the government grants an exception. According to the Washington Metropolitan Area Airports Authority, 40 of the airport's more than 800 daily flights fall into this exception.
The only time San Diego had nonstop service to Reagan National was in 2012 when then-US Airways was granted an exception to fly to San Diego. Hampton Brown, executive vice president and chief revenue officer of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, said the situation lasted until American Airlines merged with US Airways and decided to move the Reagan National slot from San Diego to Los Angeles. It is said to have lasted for a year.
“This is a huge deal because this airport is a fixed slot that could not be moved from San Diego and is essentially the closest airport to the Department of Defense and other federal departments in the District and Northern Virginia. Because it's a downtown airport,” Brown said. . “So there are a lot of benefits to that. We are the largest market in the nation without nonstop service to Reagan Airport, and even more so than some cities like Portland that already have that service. its big.”
Currently, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines offer nonstop flights between San Diego and Washington Dulles International Airport, Southwest Airlines flies nonstop to Baltimore, and Spirit Airlines recently announced that it will be flying to Baltimore starting this summer. announced that they will be operating direct flights.
Last year, all three airports serving the Washington, D.C., area served an average of 1,004 passengers a day to and from San Diego, including those stopping in transit, Brown said. Dulles had the highest number of passengers with 479 passengers. There were 300 people in Baltimore. and the Reagan Nation, 225, Brown said.
It's unclear whether other airlines will list San Diego as a priority nonstop destination if they vie for one of the new Reagan National slots. A spokesperson for Southwest Airlines, the single largest airline serving San Diego Airport, said Thursday that the airline intends to apply for new routes but has not yet announced specific plans.
“The lobbying for these slots is going to be incredibly intense, it's going to be airline-to-airline, city-to-city,” said Henry Harteveldt, an aviation analyst at Atmosphere Research. “We will try to make the best possible argument about our course.” “San Diego makes a lot of sense because San Diego is a major naval city, so this would provide a nonstop link between the Department of Defense and one of its most important naval locations. San Diego is both a growing business city and a highly popular leisure city, making it an attractive departure and destination destination.”
Alaska Airlines' bid for nonstop flights to Reagan National comes amid an aggressive expansion of the airline's presence in San Diego. While Southwest has the highest passenger traffic in San Diego, Alaska is proud to serve the highest number of destinations locally.
“The question is whether Alaska's case is as strong and persuasive as the competing claims that will be made,” Harteveldt said. “For example, can the state of Alaska show that its customers are underserved because there are so few nonstop flights to Dulles, even if it doesn't carry the most passengers?”
Expanding flight access from Reagan National Airport is part of a broader bill that would reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for five years, paving the way for funding for major infrastructure projects and aviation safety programs. . Among the bill's widely publicized consumer protection elements is a provision requiring automatic refunds for passengers whose flights are significantly delayed or canceled.
The House of Representatives passed the $105 billion bill this week and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it.