DOT Announces Winners and Losers for New DCA Perimeter Slots

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) quietly announced the recipients of the five new perimeter slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Eight airlines submitted bids for the five available slots so we knew early on that there would be winners and losers in all of this. The results were pretty predictable, though they may not be completely legal.

Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, jetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United all made their proposals for new or expanded service should they be granted additional slots. Predictably since the airport is in Washington, and the government is responsible for awarding the slots, there was a political angle on almost every request.

Months back, after the proposal period closed, I guessed that Frontier, Spirit and United would be left out in the cold. United actively fought against expanding perimeter exempt slots at the airport due to its large hub at Washington’s Dulles International Airport (IAD).

Ultimately, I was mostly correct on my positions, the only mixup being choosing jetBlue over United. Now we know, the following 5 airlines and routes have been selected to receive one additional slot pair each:

• Alaska: 1x daily to/from San Diego (SAN)
• American: 1x daily to/from San Antonio (SAT)
• Delta: 1x daily to/from Seattle (SEA). This service will compete with Alaska’s existing service on the route.
• Southwest: 1x daily to/from Las Vegas (LAS) with continuing, no change of plane service to Sacramento (SMF)
• United: 2x daily to/from San Francisco (SFO). United will be adding a second frequency to its existing DCA-SFO service and will also compete with Alaska on the route.

Honestly, I’m not shocked to see any of these additions on the list given the proposals on the table. Frontier’s request for 1x daily to San Juan (SJU), jetBlue’s request for an additional frequency to San Juan (SJU), and Spirit’s 1x daily to San Jose (SJC) all missed out on the available slots.

It will be interesting to see if all of these awarded routes hold given the cloudy legal situation but something tells me that the government’s approach will be one of “too bad, so sad.” The real winners here will be the lawyers as this is likely to get tied up in litigation.

Summary

The Department of Transportation has awarded five new perimeter slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). While there weren’t any real surprises in their selections, a cloudy legal situation means that these five new routes are far from being set in stone. For now, sit back and get your popcorn ready.