{"id":2011254,"date":"2023-08-24T19:01:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T23:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maryland-and-virginia-senators-tell-buttigieg-dca-cant-handle-more-air-traffic\/"},"modified":"2023-08-24T19:04:05","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T23:04:05","slug":"maryland-and-virginia-senators-tell-buttigieg-dca-cant-handle-more-air-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maryland-and-virginia-senators-tell-buttigieg-dca-cant-handle-more-air-traffic\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators from Maryland and Virginia warn Buttigieg: DCA can&#8217;t handle increased air traffic."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmaryland-and-virginia-senators-tell-buttigieg-dca-cant-handle-more-air-traffic%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2011254&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Senators Push Back Against New Long-Distance Flights at\u2064 Reagan National Airport<\/h2>\n<p>Senators from Maryland and Virginia recently voiced their \u2064concerns to Transportation \u200dSecretary\u2062 Pete Buttigieg\u2063 regarding the addition of new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fight-to-add-more-long-haul-flights-into-dc-area-reagan-airport-heats-up\/\" title=\"Fight to add more long-haul flights into DC-area Reagan airport heats up\">long-distance flights<\/a> at Reagan National Airport. They argue that the airport, often considered a &#8220;small regional airport,&#8221;\u2064 is ill-equipped to handle \u2064the increased traffic.<\/p>\n<p>The letter, signed \u2063by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Tim Kaine\u200d (D-VA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD),\u2063 urges changes to federal law to prevent further strain on DCA&#8217;s\u2063 already\u2064 overburdened\u2064 infrastructure. Specifically, they\u2063 oppose the allowance of\u200b more nonstop flights between\u200d DCA and West Coast cities.<\/p>\n<h3>Capacity Concerns\u200c and Perimeter \u2063Rule<\/h3>\n<p>The senators highlight the fact \u200cthat DCA \u200bis currently operating at full \u200dcapacity. Originally designed to accommodate 15 million\u2063 passengers, the airport is now on\u200d track to serve 25 million passengers this \u200dyear, thanks in part to previous \u2064Congresses\u200b adding flights. This influx of 10 million\u200d additional passengers has stretched DCA&#8217;s resources to the point where \u200cit now has\u200d the third worst cancellation rate among the busiest airports\u2064 in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The issue \u200dat\u2062 hand revolves around the \u2064perimeter rule, which \u200dlimits the\u200d number of flights traveling more \u200cthan 1,250 miles from DCA. As both Reagan \u200cand \u200bDulles International Airport\u2063 are federally\u2063 owned,\u200d Congress holds \u2064the power to\u2063 determine their\u2063 operations. Over the years, lawmakers have made exceptions to the rule,\u2064 allowing \u2062a \u200csmall number \u200dof flights beyond the 1,250-mile limit to cities like Phoenix, Austin, Las Vegas, Seattle, and Denver.\u200d In 2012, the FAA reauthorization \u200bpermitted an additional \u200b16 flights beyond the\u200c perimeter.<\/p>\n<p>For \u200cnearly\u2062 six decades, Reagan National\u200d Airport has\u2064 faced \u2063restrictions to protect long-haul airline \u2063traffic at Dulles. \u2063These restrictions aim to\u2062 maintain a balance between the \u2064two \u200bairports, with\u200c Dulles serving as\u2062 the primary\u200d hub\u2064 for long-distance \u200bflights.<\/p>\n<h3>Rebuttal and Mixed \u2064Messages<\/h3>\n<p>The senators&#8217;\u2062 letter serves \u200cas a rebuttal to a previous\u200d letter from Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Mike Lee (R-UT), \u2062who expressed concerns about \u2064consumer and competitive limitations imposed by the perimeter rule. To counter these concerns, the senators\u200d highlight a 2020 Government \u200dAccountability Office \u200c(GAO) report\u200b that analyzed previous slot exemptions at DCA. The report concluded that the \u200bdelays \u2064caused by\u200b the addition of perimeter flights in 2012 were not significant. Additionally, they reference flight \u200bdelay data from 2019, which shows that DCA&#8217;s on-time departures and arrivals are slightly above average \u200bcompared to other \u200bmajor hub airports.<\/p>\n<p>However, the senators acknowledge a recent internal FAA memo that suggests an increase in\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/washington-area-senators-warn-dca-perimeter-dispute-risks-delaying-faa-reauthorization-bill\/\" title=\"DC-area senators caution that the DCA perimeter dispute may cause delays in passing the FAA reauthorization bill.\">daily round-trip operations<\/a> at DCA would lead to significant delays. The memo \u200bindicates\u2062 that 20 more daily round-trip operations would result \u200din a 25.9% \u200bincrease \u2063in delays, while 25 additional daily round-trip operations \u200cwould cause \u2063delays to rise by \u200d33.2%.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2064 Virginia and\u2063 Maryland Senate delegations\u200c argue that \u200dthe GAO reports \u200bmentioned in\u2064 Ossoff and \u200bLee&#8217;s letter are irrelevant,\u2062 as\u2063 DCA \u200dnow serves over 25% more\u2062 passengers than when new flights were last\u200c added. They contend that\u200b adding more \u2064flights \u2062without\u2064 expanding DCA&#8217;s capacity would have an\u200b even\u200d more severe impact on operations.<\/p>\n<h3>Looking Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maryland-and-virginia-senators-tell-buttigieg-dca-cant-handle-more-air-traffic\/\" title=\"Senators from Maryland and Virginia warn Buttigieg: DCA can't handle increased air traffic.\">lobbying battle occurs amidst ongoing\u2062 negotiations<\/a> for the reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration bill. Lawmakers have until the end of\u200d September to \u2064secure \u200cthe \u200cagency&#8217;s reauthorization for the next\u2064 five years.<\/p>\n<p><em>Click \u2063here \u200bto read more from the Washington Examiner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hollen (D-MD) urges Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to reject the idea of introducing more long-distance flights at Reagan National Airport. They assert that the airport, being a &#8220;small regional&#8221; one, lacks the capacity to accommodate extra air traffic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2011255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}