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The announcement that the Justice Department has worked out a deal to allow the merger of US Airways and American Airlines probably means better, lower cost service will be coming to National Airport just outside DC. Here is a quote from the NY Times on the Justice Department agreement with the airlines:
“Under the proposal, American and US Airways would sell 104 takeoff and landing slots at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington...”
That likely means new entrants into service at National, like Virgin America, and increased service from other competitors like Southwest, which has been slowly building its presence in the Washington/Baltimore region after starting at BWI a couple of decades ago. Lower prices? Maybe. When multiple airlines compete in at the same airport, the fares usually go down, especially of the airlines are serving the same cities (or “city pairs” as they are called in the business).
At present, US Airways and American control about 2/3s of the landing “slots” at National. Each slot represents one commercial airline landing, so between the two of them, they would have had close to a monopoly on flights in and out of the airport. Now, once the merger is finished (this year) and other airlines start to bring in service, there could be better service to other cities and, perhaps, lower prices. It should be a win for those who travel out of National.
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