DC airport brawl: Delta attacks the anti-competitive regulations protecting United
Timothy P. Carney
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If you want to fly nonstop from Washington, D.C., to Austin, Texas, there is only one flight from close-in Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The other four flights fly out of Dulles International Airport, which is out in Loudoun County, 20 miles from downtown.
The reason is that regulation curbs longer flights out of Reagan. This regulation exists to protect Dulles from competition. More precisely, this regulation exists to protect United Airlines from competition — United flies three of those Dulles-to-Austin flights.
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Likewise, United Airlines flies five Dulles-to-Los Angeles flights per day, while only four Reagan-to-Los Angeles flights are available, and they are generally more expensive.
Delta Air Lines is now leading a lobbying and public relations push to loosen the decades-old “perimeter rule,” which allows only 20 daily flights longer than 1,250 miles out of Reagan. Jake Sherman wrote that Delta’s proposed changes “would probably allow Delta to add another flight to LAX, Salt Lake City and a flight to Seattle — all Delta hubs.”
Regulations often exist only to protect Big Business from competition, but regulators typically claim some sort of higher cause for regulation, such as protecting the consumer or the planet. The perimeter rule is different. It was created explicitly to protect Dulles from competition, which puts the rule defenders (again, mostly just United) in a tough spot.
The Delta-led lobbying coalition commissioned a study reporting significant cost savings for passengers if the rule is loosened.
Members of Congress will care a lot about this debate because if you fly from Los Angeles International Airport to Washington a lot, you’re going to want more flights into the airport that’s just across the river rather than the one three counties away. But at the same time, the two Democratic senators from Virginia, where both Reagan and Dulles are, favor the rules protecting Dulles and United from Reagan and Delta.
The Delta-led coalition, which calls itself “Capital Access Alliance,” is calling on Congress to use the pending reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration to modify the perimeter rule. Notably, the coalition isn’t calling for the repeal of the perimeter rule but instead for “adding 20 to 25 Flights” from Reagan to locations beyond the perimeter.
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Travel writer Gary Leff pointed out some intrigue regarding that: “American Airlines is the largest carrier at [Reagan] National. … The new lobbying coalition … doesn’t support lifting restrictions entirely, since that would primarily benefit American Airlines.”
It seems just as likely to me that Delta and crew are simply making a more modest ask because they are facing serious opposition from United and the Virginia lawmakers, so a more modest ask is more attainable. American Airlines hasn’t piped up yet.