Originally Posted by
futuramadramallama
If DCA's runways could support it, what international destination do we think would be interesting picks? Maybe DUB because preclearance? 757s are already regularly operate to/from DCA; surely a lightly loaded... 321LR/XLR or 220 could do the same across the water?
Or if pretend DCA had CBP facilities... maybe LHR or ORY would have sufficient demand for a daily flight. Maybe it'd have to be all business like the 318s BA used to operate from LCY.
None of them.
They're all beyond the perimeter; and any exemptions for perimeter flights require Congress to act. And Congress is not going to take the vote for something that benefits zero of their constituents. Add in the fact that only AA would be a plausible domestic operator - what's the rationale for them operating a single flight from DCA rather than feeding PHL or JFK? And if not AA, Congress is definitely not going to expend political capital for a foreign airline to serve DCA.
As a practical matter, no, the runway isn't going to be favorable to those long flights.
As a policy matter, no, it does not make any sense to change the airport to accommodate long-haul or international flights. We have IAD for that.
This is a solution looking for a problem. It's not as if it's hard to set up a flight to IAD or BWI.