The US finalizes new Washington flights for Delta, United and American

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday completed awarding five new daily round-trip flights from Washington Reagan National Airport to major airlines.

The flights at the busy airport in Arlington, Virginia, outside the nation’s capital, were mandated by a law signed by President Joe Biden in May. American Airlines Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are all getting new flights after the department made preliminary allocations in October. Airlines must start new flights within 90 days.

In May, Congress asked the Transportation Department to select five daily flights to expand service to cities without direct service and spur competition in markets with existing service.

There are three major airports in the Washington region, but Reagan National is the closest to the U.S. Capitol and downtown Washington. Due to its short runways, the airport’s main runway is the busiest in the United States, and Reagan is the 24th most passenger-carrying U.S. airport.

The selected flights include a Delta flight to Seattle, a Southwest flight to Las Vegas and a daily American Airlines flight to San Antonio, Texas, which would connect the seventh-largest U.S. city with the Washington-area airport. The other new flights are Alaska Airlines to San Diego, the largest market without direct flights to Reagan National, and a new United Airlines flight to San Francisco.

The Transportation Department rejected a proposal from JetBlue to add a flight to Puerto Rico.

Congress declared in 1966 that, with some exceptions, aircraft could only fly to destinations within 650 miles of the National Airport, but decades later the flight distance was expanded to 1,250 miles. Since 2000, Congress has authorized 25 daily flights, including the five new ones.

The fight over the new flights was one of the main reasons why an aviation reform bill was delayed for more than six months.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)