An hour and 45 minutes before the flight to depart downtown DC? A lot of people would argue that's too much time.

Metro will take at worst, 25 minutes. It's rush-hour, so you are unlikely to wait for a train more than 5-6 minutes.

TSA precheck is highly unlikely to take more than 10 minutes.

Assume 10 minutes to walk from metro to security and 3 minutes from security to the gate - you are likely to be at your gate in 45 - 50 minutes.

The Blue Line trains nominally run every 12 minutes, even at rush hour. Right now, there is a Safe Track surge involving the Blue Line and there have been 30+ minute headways between trains, even at rush hour.

As a daily commuter, I thoroughly believe that there is no such thing as "at worst" when it comes to Metro.

Yes, they have one slot for that route.

As a result of recent federal exemptions, non-stop service is now offered between Reagan National and the following cities:
- Austin
- Denver
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Phoenix
- Salt Lake City
- San Francisco
- San Juan
- Seattle and
- Portland, Ore.

Yeah I just looked it up. And AA has another DCA-LAX flight later in the day. So two non-stops to LAX alone.

Yeah, OP wants to go to EWR and all he asked is whether he could make his flight if he left the NPC at 5 PM.

For what it's worth, relying on Metro during Safe Track is a mistake. That is particularly true if you consider that UberX will run about $12, maybe $15 with a bit of surge pricing at that time of day.

Uber/Lyft/Taxi are fine normally. But I've had times using them to get to DCA where either traffic or a bad driver took a good bit longer than normal to get there. So as long as it's not the end of the world if you miss your flight, then relax and don't worry about it.

That should be contiguous US. "Continental US" includes Alaska

Actually 3 pairs to/from LAX (AA has 2, AS 1). Full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald...r_restrictions

Sad how every DCA thread these days seems to come back to the Perimeter Rule and how everyone wants flights to the west coast but Congress won't let us have them

The perimeter rule has been in effect for 50 years - it is nothing new.

It is quite easy to fly to the left coast - just fly from IAD which is barely 30 miles west.

Exactly. It's a 50 year old relic that no longer serves any purpose other than to protect Dulles and congressional districts 1,250 miles or less from DCA.

There's nothing 'easy' about flying out of IAD.

While I agree it is disingenuous to tell people in the District to just drive out to IAD, as someone who has a base close to IAD I have to say it is a very easy airport. From leaving Reston I am past security and heading to the gate in less than 20 minutes, counting car rental return. PreCheck is always open and never a line more than a few minutes.

Anyhow, it's clearly been posted now that there are flights from DCA to the west coast. You don't have to drive out to IAD, unless you want to go to Europe or certain destinations south of the border.

It didn't serve any purpose but to protect IAD when it was created; that's why it was created.

It continues to drive pax to IAD and is why it will stay. Enplanements are growing very well at DCA and not growing well at IAD; removing the rule will result in less pax at IAD which means the cost of flying out of IAD will increase, decreasing the number of pax, increasing cost, etc., etc.

It doesn't "protect" any congress critter's district even though it does make it easier for (some) critters to slither back and forth from whence they came.

In addition, allowing longer flights would result in many more flights using larger (73x, 319, 320) aircraft that are significantly louder than the regional jets/turbo-props. This will make the locals (who knowingly purchased/rented homes next to an airport or in the flight path) even more upset about the noise.


Sure there are things that could make IAD more convenient, but it really isn't that bad. Complain to the public officials that refused to allow Metro to be underground and in the terminal....

Glad you enjoy it. Please get the message out to your friends/colleagues about how great IAD is. DCA passed IAD in passenger traffic in 2015 so apparently people aren't getting the message.

Yup. Guess it made sense back in 1966.

So..."Dulles sucks...PLEASE help us with artificial government restrictions!"...? You ignore the fact that people prefer to fly out of DCA and want long-haul flights to the west coast.

Not sure what you mean here. Hang out at 35X for awhile and tell me how many of those aren't congressionally influenced.

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).

Glad you like it, please convince more of your friends/neighbors to do the same. DCA is starting to get a little crowded.

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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

Well duh. DCA is in a large city. IAD is out in the country. And everyone out here does use IAD. It doesn't make any sense to drive in to DCA if you live near IAD. But you said there is nothing easy about flying out of IAD. That's not at all true. I use both airports and there is nothing about IAD that makes it harder than DCA, assuming you are arriving by car. And on the inside IAD is much more pleasant in most areas, especially terminal B which is new with lots of space. DCA has small crowded corridors. That said, I will always use DCA if I happen to be in the District and flying domestically.