On June 26, 2024, an article by Gary Leff highlighted an error made by the Department of Transportation (DOT) in determining airlines eligible for new flights at Washington’s Reagan National Airport. The airport operates under a ‘perimeter rule’, preventing flights over 1,250 miles, except for a few permitted by law and approved by the DOT.
The FAA Reauthorization Bill has recently included five new beyond-the-perimeter roundtrips that the DOT can allocate, with airlines eagerly competing for them. These slots were primarily reserved for the large airlines already present at the airport, which were intensively lobbied for. There seems to be a discrepancy in the way the DOT was supposed to allocate these five new trips hence the error.
