Is Reagan National Airport a danger to the local community and to the traveling public?
And if so, what should be done about it?
Those questions could make for lively discussion early next year, as the Arlington County Civic Federation takes aim at the issue.
A resolution looking at the airport’s future was introduced at the Civic Federation’s Oct. 8 meeting. It will have a few months to germinate, federation president John Ford told ARLnow, before returning for consideration by delegates.
“The plan now is to bring it back to the membership early next year, likely in February, perhaps with some modifications and/or additions,” Ford said.
In the resolution, appropriate government officials are urged to:
Seek to divert excessive and unsafe levels of traffic to Dulles Airport through increased subsidies for landing fees at Dulles to encourage airlines to use this facility as a departure and destination location;
Seek increased deployment of increased noise and environmental monitors and more frequent public reporting of results;
Seek an independent assessment of the noise, environmental impact, and safety factors for concerns such as “one engine inoperability” on takeoff at Reagan National Airport in comparison to all other major airports in the US;
Seek to advance the national schedule for airlines to retrofit aircraft with noise abatement and environmental mitigation equipment; and
Use all of other legislative and regulatory means available to meliorate the adverse safety, environmental, and noise conditions represented by Reagan National Airport.
Resolution supporter and one-time CivFed president Joe Pelton called the draft “a bit complicated” because it looks at the future of the airport from a number of perspectives. That includes everything from safety at a facility that is seeing a post-Covid boom in flight totals, to the impact of aircraft and helicopter noise on surrounding neighborhoods, to the encroachment of taller buildings around it.
Pelton said he has been in contact with representatives from the Arlington County Board and office of U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-8th) to alert them to the resolution. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA), which runs the airport, has not yet been looped in.
Since its opening in 1941, National Airport has been viewed by many members of Congress as a congressional fiefdom. And despite opposition from MWAA and the local congressional delegation, the trend in recent years has been to allow more flights, not impose reductions.
Local governments have very limited powers related to regulating air service. Neighboring Fairfax County found that out in the 1970s, when a largely symbolic effort by that county’s Board of Supervisors to nix Concorde service to Dulles over noise complaints was, effectively, laughed out of federal court.
While Reagan National saw a larger drop-off in passenger totals during the pandemic than most other large U.S. airports, it has since rebounded. The passenger count of 2.3 million in July was the highest monthly total in the 83-year history of the facility.
In addition to billions already expended in recent years to accommodate growth, MWAA is planning another $3 billion in work at National, including redevelopment of the 1960s-era Terminal 1 (formerly Terminal A), which hosts Southwest and several other airlines.
In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, some within the Bush administration’s national-security leadership wanted to close Reagan National entirely. Local members of the congressional delegation, led by then-U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th), managed to neuter that idea before it gained traction.
