On May 15, Congress passed the long-awaited Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization bill. Included in the bill were five new slot pairs at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).
The slots issue has been one of the more contentious issues on Capitol Hill this year, and one that Travelers United has been closely following. Travelers United strongly supports giving consumers more choices, and we congratulate Congress for passing a bipartisan bill that injects more competition in the Washington, D.C. market.
Only three domestic airports come with slot controls. Washingtion DC Reagan is one of them.
The Washington DC region has some of the highest domestic ticket prices in the country. Expanding flights is an important step towards giving air travelers more choices, and hopefully lower prices, which come with more competition.
More competition will remain the dominant theme as the process now moves to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).
DOT will oversee approval of each airline’s bid for a slot pair, but it is incumbent upon them to use this authority wisely.
American Airlines has quickly moved to expand their dominance at DCA, but for the sake of consumers, DOT must be careful not to increase air carrier concentration at DCA. In short, American should not receive any of the new beyond-perimeter flights given its already outsized competitive advantage at DCA.
American Airlines wasted no time publicizing plans to increase its footprint at DCA. Immediately following the House passage of the FAA bill, the airline said it would introduce new nonstop service to and from San Antonio.
The irony, of course, is that American Airlines vigorously lobbied against the effort in Congress to add more flights at DCA – presumably because it didn’t want more competition.
American Airlines already operates more than half – 60 percent – of DCA’s daily takeoffs and landings.
According to OAG scheduled flights as of May 17, 2024, American Airlines already operates more than half – 60 percent – of DCA’s daily takeoffs and landings. It operates almost one-third of DCA’s 20 beyond-perimeter flights, with the rest divided among six other airlines. If American wants to serve San Antonio or any other beyond-perimeter destination, nothing stops the airline from using one of their existing beyond-perimeter slots.
DOT has no reason to give American Airlines even more market power at one airport.
Increased competition at DCA is what consumers need.
DOT should maximize this rare opportunity and award slots to carriers that will increase competition at DCA. Giving American Airlines another monopoly aviation market (DCA-San Antonio) would not be in the public interest. It would also conflict with a stated goal of the Biden Administration, which is to inject more competition at capacity-constrained airports like DCA.
Increasing competition is precisely what consumers want and need. Washington, D.C., is the most expensive market in the country because of airlines’ monopolistic strongholds. United Airlines, the other opponent in the battle for new slots at DCA, controls 70 percent of the gates at Dulles International Airport (IAD). The fact that United and American Airlines were so intent on keeping these new flights from coming to fruition is not a coincidence.
Don’t get it wrong again.
DOT got it wrong in 2012 when it did not insist on more slot divestitures in the U.S. Airways and Delta Air Lines slot exchange. Only 8 slot pairs at DCA were ordered to be given to airlines with limited or no service at the airport, but more should have been demanded. A year later, when American Airlines and U.S. Airways merged, DOT and the U.S. Department of Justice recovered by insisting on more slot divestitures, which resulted in the airlines giving up 52 slot pairs. DOT shouldn’t undermine this progress.
A more equitable playing field, where the free market is allowed to operate as it should and prices are kept low, is when travelers win. Boosting competition and supporting air travelers should be the lens through which DOT reviews and approves new slot bids.
American Airlines should not be granted an even larger footprint. Many other airlines serve DCA and they should be at the front of the line.
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Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
