Five new long-haul flights are coming to Reagan National Airport. It’s now up to the U.S. Department of Transportation to decide which ones.
Eight airlines met Monday’s deadline to apply for the daily roundtrip flights, which will be exempt from the airport’s general 1,250-mile service perimeter. That follows the May passage of an FAA reauthorization bill that allowed the five new flights, to the strenuous objection of local elected officials concerned about delays and safety.
The department will assign one flight to a “limited incumbent carrier” — one with six or fewer flights out of the airport — and the other four to airlines with a greater flight volume. No airline will receive more than one flight.
Of the eight applicants, six of the proposed flights would travel to the West Coast. Two other proposals would head to the Caribbean.
The proposals competing for the four “non-limited incumbent carrier” flights are:
- San Antonio (via American Airlines)
- Seattle (via Delta Airlines)
- San Juan, Puerto Rico (via JetBlue)
- Las Vegas (via Southwest Airlines)
- San Francisco (via United Airlines)
The proposals vying for the lone “limited incumbent carrier” flight are:
- San Diego (via Alaska Airlines)
- San Juan, Puerto Rico (via Frontier Airlines)
- San Jose, Calif. (via Spirit Airlines)
The eligibility of both Frontier and Spirit is currently in question, however. Both were left off a list of eligible airlines issued by the DOT last month, but each opted to apply anyway.
Public comments are being accepted on the proposals through July 17. Final decisions will be made “in a timely manner” after the comment deadline, according to a DOT spokesperson.
