Originally Posted by
flyer703
Yup. Guess it made sense back in 1966.
This is a long standing myth. DCA is slot controlled and you can't swap a commuter slot for a mainline slot. So if the Perimeter Rule was abolished it would result in swapping a within-perimeter jet slot (say to/from DFW, BOS, CLT, ORD, etc.) for a similar slot beyond the perimeter (say to/from DEN, SLC, SEA, SFO, LAX, etc.) with no increase in mainline jet traffic. No one would notice the difference. (Trust me, I would be the first one to complain living under the south departure corridor).
The only valid justification for the Perimeter Rule is protecting United's domestic feeder traffic and what it would mean to international non-stop destinations and the impact to the DC region if they pulled out of IAD. I get that, but damn I'd like to be able go SAN-DCA nonstop again
It sure seemed to.
Anyway, in addition to controlling congestion and pushing traffic to the new Dulles Airport, the rule was also instituted to reduce aircraft noise from larger planes for the surrounding community.
Disagree. The rules at DCA require only 11 of the 67 slots to be used specifically for flights of 76 or fewer seat (or 56 and less depending on type of plane) flights. For all of the other slots, except for the GA slots, while they are used predominantly by small planes, there is no
requirement for this and could, in fact, be used for ANY size plane. You can bet that the airlines would love to use bigger planes to shuttle more and more pax into these slots.
No, it actually does push pax to IAD and higher pax count reduces enplanement costs/pax. If Congress would allow DCA to subsidize IAD then it wouldn't matter so much.
While it may be true that some airlines use the current slot system rules to their advantage, and that a particular airline makes IAD its hub, this is coincidental to who the actual companies are and not why the rule is there or is retained. If UA left, I believe another will take its place pretty quick. (But then again, I don't run these boondoggles called airlines).