Improving safety at one of Washington’s busiest airports is the goal of two senators, who have introduced a bill to reduce the number of aircraft arriving and departing from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The senators, from Virginia, introduced the DCA Air Safety Act, which aims to cap hourly arrivals at the airport and spread out takeoffs and landings. This would reduce the airport’s slots by 30 over the next five years.

The bill would also mandate that regular reports are provided to Congress on traffic and the overall operational safety at the airport. Introduced by Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, who cited the fatal midair collision of American Airlines Flight 5342and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter as a key driver of them demanding change.

The DCA Air Safety Act Aims To Reduce The Number Of Flights At Washington National

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Kaine and Warner have made it clear that Congress needs to do more to ensure the highest level of safety regulations are in place to mitigate the likelihood of future tragedies. Kaine reiterated that there must be reforms that address the overcrowding at the airport, due to its proximity to restricted airspace.

Outlined in the bill, it would see the reduction of arriving aircraft to no more than 28 within 60 minutes, and additionally require binding interval caps between clusters of takeoffs and arrivals. To support this move, it would also see the reduction of six slots per year between 2028 and 2032, totalling 30 slots being axed at the airport. Kaine explains, as reported by Airline Geeks:

“In the wake of the midair collision that killed 67 people last year near DCA, Congress must do more to ensure that the highest level of safety regulations is in place to prevent future tragedies. While I support various proposals to help do that, it’s obvious that any set of reforms that doesn’t address overcrowding at this airport, which sits along restricted airspace and is already operating beyond capacity, is dangerously insufficient.”

Federal Aviation Administration Must Reduce The Number Of Flights Operating At DCA

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Ultimately, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would be held responsible for deciding which slots would be on the chopping block at Washington National, and the overall changes to operations at the airport would be public. The bill states that any interested parties could have up to 60 days to submit any commentary.

Both Kaine and Warner have stressed that the overcrowding at this airport, paired with national strains on air traffic controllers, directly influenced the fatal mid-air collision above the Potomac River, where there was an 18-minute period that one controller was responsible for overseeing 29 different aircraft across a five-minute period.

Since 2000, Washington National has added more than 64 daily slots, adding to congestion at the airport, one of only three airports in the country that are fully slot controlled. The others are New York JFK Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA).

Congress Must Act Before Another Tragedy

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Both senators have been fighting for years to reduce the number of flights at Washington National, and Warner has reiterated that “The risks are now painfully clear, and Congress cannot wait for another tragedy to act.”

Washington National is one of three airports that serve the greater Washington area, alongside the city’s main international gateway, Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), and nearby Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI). Total passenger numbers for each airport are listed below:

The DCA Air Safety Act would ultimately reduce the number of flights operating at Washington National, capping a total of 28 arrivals per hour, down from 30. These new rules would spread out the total takeoffs and landings, which would reduce flight clustering, and route cuts would target longer flights that exceed the 1,250-mile (2,011 km) perimeter rule.