Proposal to extend DCA's 'perimeter rule' withdrawn

Several hot-button aviation topics surfaced at a Thursday meeting of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in Washington.

There was a proposal to ban e-cigarettes from commercial airplanes. And a discussion about whether Congress should regulate airline seat sizes. There also was a proposal to overturn a DOT consumer protection rule that would allow airlines to exclude taxes from advertised base fares.

There was also another interesting provision that surfaced regarding Washington’s Reagan National Airport (DCA).

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That came from a Texas politician who became the latest Congressman to propose adjusting federal flight restrictions at DCA for the benefit of his home district.

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) proposed modifying DCA’s “perimeter restriction” rule to allow flights of up to 1,425 miles from the close-to-downtown airport. Currently, flights at the airport are restricted to 1,250 miles or less.

It takes an act of Congress to alter DCA’s perimeter rule, and Farenthold’s proposal – which was eventually withdrawn – is far from the first effort to try to do so.

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DCA’s perimeter rule was originally at 650 miles when it was instituted in the 1960s, part of an effort to help push airlines to expand long-distance flight offerings from the then-new Washington Dulles airport that had just been built in far-out D.C. suburbs. The perimeter was extended in the 1980s to 1,000 miles and then again to the current 1,250 miles.

However, that didn’t allow for nonstop flights to major cities in the Rockies or the West Coast. In Texas, Dallas and Houston are within the 1,250-mile perimeter, but central and west part of the state are beyond it.

In 1999, Sen. John McCain of Arizona proposed eliminating the rule altogether. McCain said at the time it would boost competition. However, critics said it was no coincidence that the change would have allowed nonstop flights between DCA and Arizona’s biggest city of Phoenix.

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McCain’s effort failed, but the pressure did yield some more-targeted results.

Congress eventually passed several sets of “beyond-perimeter exemptions” since 1999, each poking more holes in the restriction. Each set of “exemptions” allowed a certain number of flights at DCA to fly beyond -- or be "exempted" from -- the standard 1,250-mile limit.

Today, a total of 20 flights have now been “exempted” from the rule. That’s allowed airlines at DCA to add flights to the previously off-limits destinations of Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland (Ore.), San Francisco, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Salt Lake City and Seattle.

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Back to Rep. Farenthold’s proposal: What was the point of trying to add another 175 miles to the current perimeter restriction?

The Washington Post writes that “desiring to be thoroughly transparent, Farenthold acknowledged that the expansion he proposed would allow for direct flights to his hometown: Corpus Christi, Tex., 1,384 miles from Reagan National.”

It’s unlikely that any airline at DCA would add Corpus Christi nonstops even if it could, but Farenthold’s proposal also would have brought nearby San Antonio inside DCA’s perimeter.

“The perimeter rule may have been justified years ago to help Dulles get started,” Farenthold is quoted by the Post as saying to the committee, “but there’s no justification now for Congress to tell these airlines how far they can fly.”

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Farenthold withdrew the amendment “after bipartisan opposition” from local politicians.

“This has been a perennial problem for this region,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is quoted as saying about repeated efforts by Congress to loosen DCA restrictions.

Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) added: “Reagan National is small and doesn’t really have room to expand” to accommodate new flights or increased passenger counts that result from expanded long-haul flights. Furthermore, she said the exemptions "destroy the delicate balance that exists today between Reagan National and Dulles."

The Post says “Farenthold was graceful in defeat,” but he also warned the committee “this is an issue about which we’ll hear again.”

Stay tuned …

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