Congressmen want American Airlines Group to be given a break
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.
You’re right, it isn’t about the people who live in DC. It’s about the people who need to travel to DC but don’t have service because their airport is too small for most carriers to bother with. People in larger airports already have non-stop service to the DC area which includes BWI and IAD. The smaller airports won’t have this service if their slots are given to carriers who can’t afford to or won’t fly there.
It should be noted that no one has ever really documented severe economic impact over the loss of commuter routes to a hub or focus city. In fact, when there is economic necessity, the town/village/city almost always seems to strike a good deal with an airline to get that air transport into place.
When I use US Airways own route map and select Washington D.C. as the departure city, I notice that no city is being served that has no access to an airport within 1.5 to 2 hours of its location. Most within an hour.
I find fault in the argument that this benefits customers. It just simply ensures that very expensive routes to Washington D.C. and to an airport that really shouldn’t be serving as a hub or focus city stay in place to reap great revenue reward.
If I’m in charge at US Airways or American Airlines Group, I want that too. But that isn’t an argument for dominance at an airport either.