It was just announced that Reagan National will be closed indefinitely. Will that make
things better or worse at Dulles?

i can't believe it? who announced this...... edit i acted in haste " who are you" there is no email address on your profile. i don't want to waste my time responding to nothing.i hope that my comments are not regarded as "flame"

[This message has been edited by clacko (edited 09-15-2001).]

clacko (and flowerchild, too) CNN and Fox have had "Washington Reagan airport closed 'indefinitely'" on the "crawl" at the bottom of their screens for at least the past 24 hours.

According to Fox, Reagan was re-opened today, but not to passengers. Presumably they want to give airlines a chance to get their stranded planes out.

clacko, does this really come as a surprise to you? If it weren't for its proximity to Capitol Hill (and all the members of Congress who need to fly back to their districts) Reagan/National would have been shut down before its presidential namesake left office. The cynic in me says that Reagan/National will stay closed until members of Congress feel that public outrage has subsided enough to allow them to go back to using "their" airport again.


[This message has been edited by SuperSlug (edited 09-15-2001).]

superslug, i think you are on target. our leaders are for them selves. flowerchild, i apoligise , but why are you hiding?

[This message has been edited by clacko (edited 09-15-2001).]

[This message has been edited by clacko (edited 09-15-2001).]

Seeing as how 9 out of 10 emails I get are unsolicited spam, I hope we don't have to resort to assuming that anyone who doesn't have an email address posted is "hiding."

Seeing as how this is a factual, widely-reported story, I'm not sure what flowerchild is being accused of, so I'd hope we can remain civil.

On topic, though, I heard talk of Andrews AFB being turned into a commercial airport since the DC area clearly can't absorb the loss of an entire airport. I think it was reported on ABCNews, as that's where this American has gotten more news than from any other source

Actually, I can't imagine anyone delivering more information on this tragedy than Doc. Love him or hate him, the speed and accuracy of his posts during the breaking hours of this crisis was phenominal. It was like we on FT were reading all the wire services and watching all the TV networks at the same time.

Has anyone heard a timeframe for the indefinite closure being discussed...weeks..months?

Check out the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2001Sep15.html



[This message has been edited by Kiwiboy2000 (edited 09-16-2001).]

Clacko - apology accepted. I'm not hiding, I just don't have much of a profile. I traveled extensively when I was single, but am now a stay at home mom. The reason I wasn't as up on current events as some is because we turn off the TV until late at night.

If they decide to reopen National, no carry bags allowed, fasten seat belts to stay lit for the first and last hour of flying time and all passengers requried to board naked!

Here's an idea that has some merit: Switch Andrews AFB and Washington National. Andrews would become the third commercial aviation site and DCA would now be used by the military.

I've got a flight scheduled out of DCA on Friday, on Delta. Does anyone have information on the policy regarding rescheduling/cancelling? When should I call in to check on the status? It's a short weekend getaway trip that I'd rather not reschedule out of Dulles at this time, though that might be standard policy, I'm not sure.

(Edited to specify airline.)

[This message has been edited by ebell (edited 09-16-2001).]

With regard to rescheduling/switching to other airports. For a trip this weekend that I cancelled, CO reaccomodated me to a later date without trouble and waived several rules on top of the exceptions they've published. As to switching to IAD or BWI for upcoming trips, CO switched me from DCA to IAD without question for upcoming September and October trips. United has said it is too soon to switch airports for a trip 3 weeks out. American has said no switching for a November trip yet due to lack of direction from the Feds.

I took the situation surrounding National to indicate closure for some weeks ahead and I recommend you ask Delta to move you to IAD or BWI.

[This message has been edited by Warrenlm (edited 09-16-2001).]

I have a Friday flight out of DCA on NW. The NW rep assured me that the airport would probably be open by then (I'm doubtful) but as we were talking I realized I didn't know which airport was handling the new world better.

I'd like to maximize the chances that I will make my 5:40 flight out of either IAD or BWI without getting to the airport much more than 2 hours ahead of time. The Washington Post had a story this weekend about all of these empty planes leaving IAD because the passengers couldn't check in and clear security in time. I don't want that to be me.

So, which airport will be less likely to be a zoo on Friday afternoon? I'm indifferent otherwise, as I won't be parking at either place.

I realize this is a minor concern in the grand scheme of things, but I'd appreciate anyone's experiences at either airport.

cic

I doubt National can handle the 747's that are used for airforce one.