Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the time.
In 2023, amid debate about a bill adding 28 daily flights and easing restrictions on long distance flights at Reagan National Airport, ARLnow ran an unscientific poll asking readers what they thought.
Two-thirds of the nearly 2,000 respondents said they supported the bill to some degree.
The same debate played out last year as Congress scaled the proposal down to five additional long-haul flights at DCA, via an FAA reauthorization bill. That ultimately passed — just a few months before the deadly collision between a military helicopter and an arriving commercial flight.
Now the Virginia senators who previously spoke out against adding flights are pushing to have them scaled back, in the wake of a Washington Post article detailing how additional flights have “reduced the margin of error for air traffic controllers and pilots to dangerous levels” during peak periods.
From U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, via a joint press release:
“Air traffic controllers and pilots are only human – their workload and work environment should reflect that. Unfortunately, Congress added more flights into DCA’s already chaotic airspace just months before this tragic crash over the objections of the region’s Senate delegation and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, disregarding the concerns of numerous pilots, air traffic controllers, and FAA and DOT personnel.
“What do you tell 67 families who have lost their loved ones? What do you tell America’s flying public? We have fought against adding more flights at DCA for years because safety has to be the first and top priority. While many risk factors must be reevaluated, Congress needs to start by rolling back the additional flight slots it forcibly crammed into last year’s FAA Reauthorization Act.”
Do you agree with the senators that flights at National Airport should be scaled back? If so, by how much?
