Five airlines have applied to the Transportation Department to fill a
rare opening in the national route map: a single pair of slots to operate one
roundtrip per day at Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National Airport.
So scarce and valuable are these slots that two of the five airlines, Southwest
and Sun Country, filed applications even though they have no facilities at the
airport and would have to incur the expense of setting up a new operation there
to support a single daily flight.
The slot is up for grabs as a result of last year's acquisition of Midwest
Airlines and Frontier Airlines by Republic Holdings and its subsequent decision
to merge the two carriers under the Frontier brand.
Midwest has been operating three daily flights from Washington to Kansas City,
Mo., but the airline was awarded one of its Washington slots under a program to
encourage entry and/or new flights to deserving markets, and that slot is
nontransferable.
Because of the acquisition, the DOT determined that it should reallocate that
slot pair, and it invited airlines to apply.
Republic promptly applied to keep the slot, noting that Midwest had been using
it consistently to serve Kansas City for six years in direct competition with
US Airways, a dominant carrier in the Washington market.
Midwest/Frontier now operates three daily flights in the market and shortly
plans to deploy 99-seat Embraer Regional Jets for all three.
Republic also disputed the legal reasons for the DOT's decision to reallocate
the slot and expressly reserved its right to challenge that determination in
court if the slot is awarded to another airline.
Southwest filed to take over the slot and use it to compete against
Midwest/Frontier in serving Kansas City. Evidently prepared before Southwest
announced plans to acquire AirTran, the application lays great emphasis on the
fact that Southwest has no slots at Reagan and would be a low-fare new entrant
at the capital's close-in airport.
It also emphasized that its 737s would offer more seats than Midwest's regional
jets and that it would offer connecting service via Kansas City to numerous
points beyond, including Denver, Las Vegas, Phoenix and destinations on the
West Coast.
AirTran, which has agreed to be acquired by Southwest and which already has
Washington slots, proposed to operate 717 or 737 aircraft to Fort Myers or
Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla., two markets already served by US Airways.
US Airways, which has more slots at the airport than any other carrier, said it
should get the available slot to offer a daily flight to Pensacola, Fla., a
Gulf Coast destination that lacks convenient service to Reagan. US Airways said
it would offer a mix of 76- and 86-seat regional jets on the route, determined
by seasonal demand.
Sun Country, which has no Washington slots, proposed to set up shop at the
airport to offer one daily flight to Lansing, Mich., with continuing service to
Minneapolis, using 737 aircraft. It said its plan would reduce trip times for
Lansing-Washington travelers while offering one-stop competition in the
Washington-Twin Cities market against Delta.
This report originally appeared on
TravelWeekly.com.