Congressmen have a well known fondness for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.   They can work their 5 or 6 day week and catch a flight from this airport to home in short time.  The drive to Dulles can be very painful and particularly so towards the end of a week.

So Congress doesn’t want the merged airline of US Airways and American Airlines (aka American Airlines Group) to lose slots because of their merger.  The fear is that lost slots will result in lost routes to home states for Congressmen.

They aren’t wrong to fear this.  A divestiture of slots at Reagan National would almost certainly see them fall into the hand(s) of low cost carriers, at least in part. Low cost carriers won’t use those slots to fly to Albany, NY non-stop.

They will be used by a Southwest Airlines to fly to someplace like Austin, TX.  Or, perhaps, JetBlue to fly to Denver.

Should the new carrier be allowed to keep all its slots at Reagan National?  I’m sure everyone in the airline industry would shout out “Yes!”.  Personally, I think that certain airports with Reagan National being a perfect example should not be dominated by one airline.  Greater access by other airlines at that airport would be more appropriate.

Why?  Because it isn’t all about the people who live in Washington D.C.  It’s also about the people who live in other cities who have that need to travel to Washington D.C.  A little more competition and a little less domination at airports would be preferable.

Filed under: Airline Seating, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax
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