DCA Curfew
 

Does DCA still have a curfew. UA 1211 ORD-DCA delayed 12 hours till tomorrow morning.

Yes, but airlines sometimes still land after hours and deal with the penalty. DL had an MD90 arrive from DTW at 1:27a this morning.

A 12 hour delay sounds like something more than just the curfew issue.

No. Technically, it never has. National Airport opened in 1941, and has operated ever since as a 24/7 facility. It did, however, adopt the Nighttime Noise Rule in the late 1970's (IIRC), which forbade operation of certain aircraft between 10pm and 659am. I moved into an apartment in Crystal City - less than a mile from the north end of the runway - and recall the parade of takeoffs beginning at 7am every morning.

Everyone referred to it as a curfew, because the jets at that time exceeded the allowable decibel levels, and, thus, flights stopped landing at 10pm and takeoffs didn't happen until 7am. But......

The airlines - and passengers - hated the curfew which often meant flights diverted to Dulles. And Boeing and Douglas developed hush kits that allowed jets to land and take off more quietly.So the FAA made it clear that jets that met noise standards could operate 24.7 at DCA.

Now, with the changes in aviation technology, certain full-size jets regularly land at DCA late into the night. And they take off as early as 515am, rattling windows and making life miserable for Georgetown residents who are directly under one of the flight pads but are prevented by Historic Preservation standards from making affordable soundproofing improvements to their homes.

So, no. There's never been a curfew. But there have been restrictions. And the airlines have found ways around the restrictions.

No: http://www.flyreagan.com/dca/dca-nighttime-noise-rule

Note: It is important to note that an operational curfew has never existed at Reagan National

Maybe you mean UA 2012 (a 738)...originally scheduled to arrive at 11:59 pm? If they are saying the 12+ hour delay - now scheduled to depart at 9:30am tomorrow - is due to "curfew" rules at DCA that is BS.

I've landed at almost all hours at DCA (sometimes after 2am).

http://www.flyreagan.com/dca/dca-nighttime-noise-rule

-FlyerBeek

A clever ruse to avoid compensation?

It's amazing how many people believe this old wives tale. ;)

DOT complaint perhaps?

I have landed as late as 3:30am. AA actual has a scheduled flight at times that departs DFW around midnight and lands at DCA at around 3:45am.

Here is AA schedule for July 16, 2017

AA 2293 DFW-DCA 8:15pm - 12:13 am (daily except Sat)
AA 2690 DFW-DCA 11:50pm - 3:49am (Sun only)

No more arrival curfew at DCA. It used to be 6am to 10pm. That's no longer the case.
Departure curfew is still in place for night departures. Any plane taking off after 10pm has to deal with the penalties. The only exceptions are delayed flights because of the weather.

I used to wake up by the sound of DL MD-88 departing right at 6am. Now I'm hearing planes depart as early as 5am.

I think part of the reason why the curfew was removed is that there are no more prop planes flying in/out of DCA (except FAA J32 on a twice daily shuttle to ACY), and all the MD-88s and MD-82s are not being used at DCA anymore.
All other planes are compliant with the noise level rules.

If you look at the DCA schedule, arrivals are scheduled up to 12 midnight. The two noisiest planes are DL MD-90s arriving at 9:40pm and 11:40pm from MSP. However, MD-90s meet the noise standards.

As for departures, the last plane out of DCA on schedule is AA A319 going to RSW at 10pm. No later departures from DCA.

Wrong. There never was a curfew. From the DCA website:

This urban legend is strong. ;)

Actually there was. From the website you can see that it wasn't officially called curfew. However, that's what it was.

"In the early 1980s, louder aircraft operating at Reagan National prompted the FAA - the original airport operator - to impose nighttime noise restrictions between 10 p.m. and 6:59 a.m. which became known as the DCA Nighttime Noise Rule. The DCA Nighttime Noise Rule is not an operational curfew at Reagan National."

When the curfew was in place, there was one gimmick that airlines came up with to avoid missing the 10pm cut off time. If the airline contacted the tower before 10pm they could still arrive, even when the flight landed after 10pm.

Airlines running late, still flying over Blue Ridge, would contact the tower at DCA to request landing clearance. As long as they've called before 10pm they were allowed to land.

Where did the OP ever infer that their delay was being attributed to a "curfew" by UA?

BTW, I searched UA 1211 & it is DEN-PIT. Looks like the OP means UA 2012 which was delayed 12 hours. Isn't that a charter??

Could pilots call DCA tower from the ramp at ORD?

From your post:

"The DCA Nighttime Noise Rule is not an operational curfew at Reagan National."

My first arrival at DCA was at 1am in 1991.

There is no operational curfew at DCA.