Airlines are jockeying for new beyond-perimeter routes after Congress approved five new slots for longer-distance flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Who should those slots go to?
DCA Slot Awards: Five New Beyond-Perimeter Slots Are Up For Grabs
Here is what airlines have requested:
- Las Vegas (LAS) – Southwest Airlines
- with “direct” service to Sacramento (SMF) – no plane change in LAS
- San Antonio (SAT) – American Airlines
- San Diego (SAN) – Alaska Airlines
- San Jose, CA (SJC) – Spirit Airlines
- San Juan (SJU) – JetBlue (second slot) + Frontier Airlines
- San Francisco (SFO) – United Airlines (second slot)
- Seattle (SEA) – Delta Air Lines
Note that both JetBlue and United have requested a slot to Los Angeles (LAX) as a backup.
Without getting into the intricacies of the slot award requirements, there is reason to question whether Frontier and Spirit are even eligible. My feeling is that they will be deemed eligible and there’s a strong case for Spirit’s SJC route since no other carriers offer nonstop service to DCA from the Silicon Valley.
The new slots would augment the current “beyond-perimeter” slot allowance:
- Austin (once daily on Southwest — or one “slot pair,” which includes a daily takeoff and landing)
- Denver (three slot pairs for Frontier Airlines, one for United Airlines)
- Las Vegas (one slot pair for American)
- Los Angeles (two slot pairs for American, one for Alaska, one for Delta Air Lines)
- Phoenix (three slot pairs for American)
- Portland, Oregon (one slot pair for Alaska)
- Salt Lake City (one slot pair for Delta)
- San Francisco (one slot pair for Alaska, one for United)
- San Juan, Puerto Rico (one slot pair for JetBlue)
- Seattle (two slot pairs for Alaska)
Selfishly, I’d love to see United get the Los Angeles slot (instead of a second San Francisco slot), but with service already by Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, I guess the 2x daily SFO service makes more sense…a JetBlue LAX slot would also be welcome. That said, I don’t think United or JetBlue will get a slot at all.
Delta certainly doesn’t want United to have a slot…or American or JetBlue, but it won’t be Delta’s lawyering but rather a decision to maximize connectivity that will lead to the following awards:
- SAT – American Airlines
- LAS – Southwest Airlines
- SEA – Delta Air Lines
- SAN – Alaska Airlines
- SJC – Spirit Airlines
That’s my guess. If I were in charge, I’d award Southwest to Las Vegas, Delta to Seattle, United to Los Angeles, Alaska to San Diego, and JetBlue to Los Angeles…you can see where my SoCal bias lies.
That’s my best guess…which five DCA beyond perimeter slots do you think will be awarded?
If congress is feeling like encouraging competition, then I would agree with your choices. But, I feel like they’ll be inclined to take a second SFO slot instead of a B6 and F9 slot to SJC.
Hearing from a handful of colleagues from silicon valley, they still fly out of SFO over SJC as SFO offers better connectivity to regions outside the west coast.
Ignore my first sentence as I totally agree with this- Really mixed up SJC and SJU in my head smh
What they should do if consult with the right economics professors and auction off all slots.
If they attempted to auction off Brandon , then Dr., Jill Brandon would be the only bid , then win , and then rake-in all the donations in the bank . Political economics .
While your set of 5 awards is highly plausible, it requires Spirit to be deemed eligible and for Alaska to be recatorized as a non-limited incumbent carrier. The law spells out that 4 slots go to larger airlines already at the airport, and 1 slot go to a smaller carrier already at the airport. Whether Spirit is eligible depends on whether their past history of the airport counts (the FAA thought they were ineligible because they aren’t currently serving DCA). If Alaska gets recategorized based on their codeshares with American, they become a non-limited incumbent. That’s the only way your contention that “I don’t think United or JetBlue will get a slot at all” is possible. If Alaska is a limited-incumbent, as the government supposes, then either United or JetBlue must win since there would be just 5 non-limited incumbents for 4 slot pairs.
@Dave W – instead of auctioning the slots, slots should be abolished entirely in favor of congestion pricing. That’s the economics professor answer anyway…
You’re quite right and I didn’t want to get into the thicket, but I think Spirit qualified based on the wording of the act and a strong case can be made that Alaska is not a limited incumbent.
I thought it interesting that we or finally saw AC on the qualification list.
Sorry- you’re wrong. The act says that they had to be flying to Dca as of the passage of the act. Even though spirit could be a limited incumbent, the act says they have to be flying at Dca as of the date of the passage of the bill. Spirit was not.
As a slot holder (four slots), Spirit is a limited-incumbent, even though it does not currently serve DCA. Alaska, with its codeshare relationship with American, should be classified as a non-limited incumbent. I don’t understand what your point of contention is.
Sorry- you’re wrong. Spirit is a limited incumbent. But the legislation specifically says to be eligible they had to be incumbent … as of the date of the passage of the bill. Spirit, while potentially qualifying as a limited incumbent, wasn’t flying to DCA when this legislation had passed. They’re not eligible.
As for Alaska, that’s an interesting question. Tbd!
If they had a real interest in connectivity, they would find a way to introduce an AC/UA route to YYZ so that international passengers can avoid the huge queues and poor connection facilities of most large US airports. Of course that’s not going to happen as nobody is prepared to invest huge amount in lawyers and/or lobbyists in order to convince the powers that be of a passenger benefit that probably wouldn’t generate huge profits or efficiencies for any individual airline.
There already is YYZ service on AC (it falls under the perimeter). Would love to see Porter service to YTZ.
My bad, I am convinced I had read somewhere that it wasn’t possible due to complications around passport control or customs or something. Fully agree that a YTZ service would make sense too.
No pre-clearance at YTZ. No customs at DCA. Tis but a dream
Ah, you’re right.
True now but not for long
https://www.billybishopairport.com/destination-ytz/us-cbp-preclearance-coming-to-billy-bishop-toronto-city-airport/
My preference, but not the most likely is…
*Las Vegas (LAS) – Southwest Airlines
*San Antonio (SAT) – American Airlines
*San Diego (SAN) – Alaska Airlines
*San Jose, CA (SJC) – Spirit Airlines
HA! *San Francisco Bay Oakland (OAK) – United Airlines for opposing expansion
If B6 gets the 2nd slot from DCA to San Juan, then it’s got something of significant value considering B6 is turning SJU into a mini hub. Nice to have both morning and afternoon service to the heart of the US government.
I just don’t see how you can justify two dailies from SJU…it’s not like the bustling AA hub of more than a decade ago.
Disagree:
– Any slots at DCA are valuable, just look at the cat fight in the above story
– Not the most premium PAX, but plenty of government employees filling seats in the rear, plus the regular PAX filling up Economy Plus and Mini Mint.
– Frequently (2X) giving B6 leverage in this segment
– government of Puerto Rico will lobby for as many connections to DCA as possible
– Should NYC become sopped in, DCA is an alternative from San Juan. New Yorkers are a cranky bunch, but not stupid
– B6 is relying on the Silver Airways mini hub at San Juan to handle inter island connections like AA Eagle of the past
I think we will see the following :
AA/SAT
AS/SAN
DL/SEA
WN/LAS
UA/SFO
If it was up to me, I would prefer B6/LAX over the UA proposal. UA did make an excellent case for their SFO slot over the B6/SJU one though.
Even if NK/F9 are eligible, I don’t see the DoT wanting to annoy Congress. There’s not much public benefit for an unreliable airline either.
Unless AS is a non-limited incumbent! In which case UA is out.
SAT is a done deal, and I’m jealous. AUS is 1310 from DCA, and 1510 from LGA. It isn’t fair!
You kick out Ted for Beto and maybe he’ll make it happen. 😉
I’m trying as hard as I can!
Robert Francis isn’t running this time around. The equally odious Collin Allred is.
Prefer that it be DCA-Las Vegas with Southwest.
Too bad we won’t see a DCA-Ireland anytime soon as that is what I would really like to see. DCA-KEF would be nice but that’s even more remote unless Icelandair decide to bite the bullet and take the risk of screwing the pooch by wanting US CBP Preclearance at KEF.
Spirit and Alaska are my favorites, as those are the airlines I want to see have more routes.
There’s no way in hell that SAT gets overlooked on this. No. way. in hell. Ted Cruz pushed for it and Cantwell agrees – that’s all the signalling that DOT needs from the Hill.
AA: DCA-SAT
WN: DCA-LAS
DL: DCA-SEA
AS: DCA-SAN
B6: DCA-LAX
F9’s offering of SJU is weak sauce and there simply isn’t enough pull in Puerto Rico to make this happen (same with B6). NK’s proposal is very attractive, but the law is the law. The statute says pretty clearly – incumbent as of the date of passage of the legislation. I actually think the business case for SJC is strong, but the statute was written that way for a reason. Given UA’s intransigence with respect to the entire slot process (especially with its lobbying emails being made public), I bet that DOT blows UA a kiss and ignores them in favor of B6’s alternate proposal – LAX.