Who knew wee Reagan Airport was one of the most dangerous places to land/take off in America? If you grew up here, like ol’ UD, you think of Reagan as the dinky downhome alternative to sleek vast Saarinen-designed Dulles (with BWI — we’re really spoiled; lots of terminals near ‘thesda — a kind of afterthought for a quick hop to Bermuda). Now it turns out that self-important assholes have been jamming the place and creating a hellscape people in charge of the airport have been screaming about forever. Reagan Airport “is probably the most dangerous airport in the United States,” one pilot wrote in 2015. “The controllers are pushing, pushing, pushing in an attempt to handle the traffic they have.”
And ain’t it sweet that little Wichita’s Rep. pushed and pushed and got a daily flight out there THAT THE AIRPORT CAN BARELY HANDLE AND ITS ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN BEGGING FOR ALL THE ADDITIONAL FLIGHTS TO STOP.
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That copter thing. Reminds me of the Rennert/Bloomberg thing of just landing your immense thundering personal helicopter whenever and wherever you feel like it — illegality, and torment of homeowners, be damned.
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“Every senator in particular wants a nonstop flight to and from wherever they live,” said [Peter] DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat. He noted that a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration passed last year added even more flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. “The airport said, ‘Don’t do it.’ And they did it. So they added to what DCA said is already an overly congested and over-capacity airport.” (Congress has added more than 60 new flights to Reagan since 2000, over the objections of airport officials.)
… The airport authority said, “We are over capacity. We cannot accommodate more flights, and we think this is going to be disruptive.” Unfortunately, … Congress mandated adding more flights into National Airport, so that more senators can have direct flights. I was chairman of the committee, and I always had to connect somewhere. I didn’t ask for a direct flight. So, that’s a problem. That is a problem, the political influence over the airport, as most recently exhibited in the last FAA bill. So, I think we might need to revisit the amount of traffic.
How third world, my dears. Bigass military egos, bigass senatorial egos, and here we are. Disgusting.
February 1st, 2025 at 7:22PM
But Reagan’s appeal is so much greater since it’s right on the Metro and gets you into the city in 15 mins. Dulles requires an extra hour just to get through the country’s most poorly-designed airport, not to speak of getting from airport to the city on whatever combination of bus/train/taxi you can cobble together. It seems obvious that demand to fly to DCA would grow.
February 1st, 2025 at 10:54PM
But the VIPs don’t take Metro; that’s for ordinary people who don’t order up limos and copters. If demand for Reagan were rational – having nothing to do w/ under-used direct flights senators bully the place into providing, or with fancy ego trip trips – it would far likelier grow in a meaningful and non-dangerous way. Organically, if you like.
February 2nd, 2025 at 2:35PM
But if they get a helicopter, what do they need the DCA flight for? They can copter from Dulles. I think plenty of them do take the metro. I’ve seen them there sometimes. Plus many more people from all over the country have business with the fed govt than did a couple decades ago. Growth seems inevitable, but maybe re-routing the copters would be a good idea. Or building better transit to Dulles! That’s been decades in the making.
Sometimes even VIPs have to live like the rest of us. Ted Cruz lives near me and we occasionally see him shopping at our Whole Foods, like a pleb.
February 2nd, 2025 at 3:50PM
I think I read that they’ve grounded copters for the moment around Reagan. No doubt rethinking the whole idea.
Can plebes ever be said to go to Whole Foods? I think they’re in Costco.
February 2nd, 2025 at 5:33PM
Ha, you betray your own frou-frou bias. Costco is the expensive Sam’s Club. But you can’t expect him to lower himself to the level of Kroger, can you? At least he’s carrying his own bags.
February 2nd, 2025 at 5:57PM
It’s true I’m a tad too frou-frou for this world. I’m extremely hazy about the differences among Sam’s, Costco, Kroger’s, and … others?
I don’t food shop at all. That’s Mr UD’s domain.