FAA links proposed increase in flights at Reagan National to increased delays

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that a proposed increase in flights at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., would cause increased delays at an airport that already experiences among the most of any in the country. 

An FAA memorandum from Thursday, obtained by Punchbowl News, reports that runway slot controls, which are implemented to limit scheduled air traffic at certain airports that are strained by capacity, are in place at Reagan airport as well as LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International airports in New York to oversee daily operations from 6 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. 

The control at Reagan is considered level 3, meaning that its infrastructure is not adequate to meet demand and a “significant” potential for delays exists. 

The memorandum states that Reagan has the fifth-highest number of ground delay programs and ground stops of any airport in the National Airspace System (NAS). It said most of the delays are not attributable to airspace and might hint at other challenges, such as gate availability. 

An analysis found that an increase of 20 daily round-trip flights would increase delays by 25.9 percent, while 25 additional round-trip flights would increase delays by 33.2 percent. 

“Additional flights at DCA would likely have a negative impact on operational performance and passenger experience,” the memorandum states. 

The memorandum notes that the model used for the analysis considers modeling of runway configurations and estimates weather conditions for each configuration but does not consider gate constraints. 

Reagan has been the 10th-most delayed airport in the NAS since January 2022, with about 20 percent of departures and 22 percent of arrivals experiencing an average delay of 67 minutes.