For those who are curious, here are links to articles about the decision in today's local newspapers:

http://www.sltrib.com/11282002/business/business.htm

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,450017372,00.html

I think this is wonderful news. In the past, I have always flown into DCA, even though I had to transfer somewhere, rather than fly nonstop to Dulles, since I love being about to hop on Metro at DCA to get to where I need to go.

As the Deseret News article notes, Delta was competing for the slots with U.S. Airways out of San Francisco, American Airlines out of Las Vegas, Southwest Airlines out of Los Angeles, Frontier Airlines in Denver and Alaska Airlines out of Los Angeles. The article says that Delta got the prize because of its extensive hub operation in SLC, thus enabling people not only in SLC, but also in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and eastern Washington, Oregon, and Nevada to better connect to DCA. That is why the entire congressional delegations of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana signed a letter to Transportation Secretary Mineta seeking the slots for Delta, according to the article.