US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - US Airways Announces New Service Washington's Reagan National-Bermuda

Press Release
SOURCE: US Airways
US Airways Announces New Service Washington's Reagan National-Bermuda

ARLINGTON, Va., April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/-- US Airways announced today that it will begin new international daily nonstop service between Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Bermuda on July 7, 2002.

The airline is transferring its existing U.S.-Bermuda route authority from Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) following approval of its application yesterday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

US Airways reintroduced daily BWI-Bermuda flights on April 7, 2002, using state-of-the-art Airbus A319 aircraft with seating for 120 passengers. The service will become the airline's first international route from Reagan National Airport since reductions in its network following September 11.

``The transfer of Bermuda service will contribute significantly to the development of US Airways' operations at Reagan National,'' said Ben Baldanza, US Airways' senior vice president of marketing and planning. ``While strengthening our range and scope of service at Reagan National, it will offer extensive customer benefits, including enhanced competition and greatly improved flight connections for numerous destinations in the eastern U.S.''

``US Airways is grateful to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta for providing the opportunity to continue its growth at Reagan National with the addition of this important Caribbean destination.''

Starting July 7, 2002, flights will depart Reagan National Airport daily at 8:30 a.m., and will arrive in Bermuda at 11:40 a.m. Return services will depart Bermuda at 12:30 p.m., and will arrive at Reagan National at 1:52 p.m.

In addition to Bermuda, US Airways currently serves the following Caribbean destinations: Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Cancun, Cozumel, Freeport, Grand Cayman, Montego Bay, Nassau, San Juan, Santo Domingo, St. Croix, St. Lucia, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. US Airways Express also serves North Eleuthera, Governors Harbour, Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay from Florida.

From Ronald Reagan National Airport, US Airways currently operates 153 flights daily, serving 35 destinations.

SOURCE: US Airways

Older discussion here (from when US filed the route authority)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/001912.html

Just like US1@ORF said, BWI is being handed over to the wolves (WN). I went on the old BWI-Bermuda route last year at this time- the flight was full.

I have a twin brother who lives in the D.C. area and we always liked having three airports in the area from which to choose- BWI, DCA, IAD. I guess it'll be down to two by the middle of the summer.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by A320 EOW:

I have a twin brother who lives in the D.C. area and we always liked having three airports in the area from which to choose- BWI, DCA, IAD. I guess it'll be down to two by the middle of the summer.</font>

Even if BWI is losing all of its "hub" or point-to-point flights, it won't be losing its flights to the hubs. So if you're talking about point-to-point traffic bypassing the hubs, you are going from two (BWI/DCA) to just one (DCA). However, you say that with the thinning of BWI, you'll just have two to chose from (DCA/IAD). BWI will still be a bigger station than IAD. For example, BWI will (most likely) have jets to PIT/PHL, while IAD has props to both.