The fight over Reagan National Airport is bigger than Washington

Lindsay Lewis, opinion contributor

You can’t easily reduce America’s flagging faith in government to any single factor. But if there’s any one thing that surely contributes to the electorate’s frustration with Washington, it’s the seemingly endless litany of examples demonstrating how government gets in its own way. 

That’s about to happen, once again, with the forthcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration’s oversight of the nation’s airline industry. Unless those interested in the greater good prevail, a handful of self-serving companies may undermine the public interest. And if that happens, those who regularly trumpet the notion that government is always the problem — those who, as President Trump likes to argue, believe the public is constantly getting a “bad deal” — will have yet another sorry episode to burnish their indictment.

In this case, the underlying circumstances provide important context. Several of the nation’s busiest metropolitan hubs — New York and Washington, D.C. among them — are so inundated with airline traffic that no single airport can meet the demand. As a result, both cities are served by several facilities, some of which are more congested than others. In New York, LaGuardia is much closer to Manhattan and more convenient for many than JFK. In Washington, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, located minutes from the District of Columbia but constrained by its geography and proximity to federal buildings, is more congested than Dulles International, which sits several dozen miles away. 

To modulate the flow of air traffic, Congress, under the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) law now up for reauthorization, gave the FAA the power to impose a slot system to limit the number of flights in and out of the more congested airports.

Because the nation’s airline system is just that — a system — a small tweak in one part can have ripple effects throughout. Recognizing that Washington’s more congested National Airport was already oversubscribed — it has the third-worst cancellation rate among the nation’s 30 busiest airports — those who coordinate the national capital region’s transportation networks have long worked to make it easier and more convenient to fly out of Dulles. 

Just six months ago, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened a new Silver Line extension to Dulles, giving residents of the District and nearby neighborhoods direct access to the airport via the Metro subway system. The project took years to plan and build, cost $6.8 billion, and covered 11.4 miles. Anticipating the Silver Line’s opening, airlines began to invest in the facilities that would allow them to begin adding service from Dulles, at considerable cost.

These investments were made with the understanding that National Airport, increasingly prone to overuse and delays, would continue to be subjected to a slotted cap — that, however much demand there might be for additional flights to additional destinations from the facility closest to D.C., the government would maintain the limit. If, on the other hand, the government had intimated that it might lift the cap at National, there might not have been nearly so much of the impetus to spend taxpayer dollars on the new Metro extension. Moreover, the airlines looking to add new flights to new destinations from the nation’s capital might not have invested in expanding their footprints at Dulles, thinking it wiser to invest in National.

It appeared, for years, that the federal government would hold fast. But now, at the last minute, some airlines have begun to push Congress to permit more flights out of National. The airlines that might win those additional slots stand to benefit from the shift, of course. But the public would lose. One study suggests that adding 20 roundtrips would worsen delays by nearly 25 percent and that 25 additional roundtrips would exacerbate the problem by more than 33 percent. Less obvious, but perhaps more invidious, the sudden shift would undermine the investments both the public and private parties have made in expanding and enhancing Dulles.

Over the next several months, a battle is poised to play out between those intent on staying the course for the good of the flying public, and those who would whistle past the downside of making National even more congested. If the fight is sufficiently contentious, the FAA reauthorization could be delayed, denying desperately needed funds for hiring additional air traffic controllers and making airport improvements at facilities across the country. 

In short, unnecessary delays could ensure another year of record flight delays and cancellations in communities well beyond Washington. Washington need not give the public any additional reason to believe that the government is falling short. And, without a doubt, America’s weary travelers deserve better.

Lindsay Lewis is executive director of the Progressive Policy Institute.