By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Transportation Department on Wednesday said it was tentatively 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 under legislation signed in May by President Joe Biden.
American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines are all receiving tentative new flights. The Transportation Department issued a “show cause” order that will allow for public comment or objections for two weeks and responses for one week before final orders on the slots are issued.
The law requires the Transportation Department to select the flights to expand service to cities without direct service and to boost competition in markets with existing service.
The Washington region has three major airports, but Reagan National is closest to the U.S. Capitol and downtown. Because of its short runways, its main runway is the busiest in the U.S., and Reagan is the 24th-busiest U.S. airport by passengers.
The airlines did not immediately comment.
The flights chosen include a new Delta flight to Seattle, a new Southwest Las Vegas flight and a new American Airlines daily flight between San Antonio and Washington, which would connect the seventh-largest U.S. city to the DC airport.
Alaska Airlines tentatively received a new daily flight to Reagan from San Diego, the largest market without direct flights to the DC airport, while United Airlines has tentatively won a new flight to San Francisco.
The Transportation Department rejected a proposal by JetBlue to add a flight to Puerto Rico from Washington.
Congress in 1966 said airplanes could only fly to destinations within a 650-mile perimeter of National Airport, with some exceptions, but decades later expanded the flight distance to 1,250 miles. Since 2000, Congress has approved 25 daily flights, including the five new ones.
The fight over the new flights was a key reason an aviation reform bill was delayed for more than six months.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
