Originally Posted by
ashill
AC applied for one of the four available-to-any-airline perimeter exemption slots to fly to YVR in the last round of new slots. Unsurprisingly, they didn't get it (AS-PDX, VX-SFO, B6-SJU, and WN-AUS got them that round), since YVR doesn't have a strong advocate in Congress. AA, UA, and DL each have at least one free beyond-perimeter slot that they could use for YVR if they wanted to, but it seems unlikely to me that YVR would move to the top of the list for a US airline unless there were many more beyond-perimeter slots.
I am not sure of the status of the DL/WS and UA/AC joint ventures, but it is conceivable that if the Canadian partner sees enough business they could convince the American partner to add the flight. I believe the DL/WS JV is still pending, and that AC/UA don't have a transborder JV but have the ability to establish one should they wish with 12 markets excluded for competition reasons.
I found it a bit difficult to find the exact beyond perimeter slots, so here they are, from a
TPG article on the subject. Odd that I couldn't find where the US Government publishes them...
Originally Posted by Edward Russell, The Points Guy, 9 January 2020
The current “beyond perimeter” destinations offered by airlines from DCA are:
- Alaska Airlines: Los Angeles, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Seattle
- American Airlines: Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix
- Delta Air Lines: Los Angeles, Salt Lake City
- Frontier Airlines: Denver
- JetBlue: San Juan (Puerto Rico)
- Southwest Airlines: Austin
- United Airlines: Denver, San Francisco
The AS partnership seems like it could be a winner in the DC area for AA, since AA fliers can get to SFO, PDX, and SEA x2 non-stop and get another flight option to LAX.