S. 5387: DCA Air Safety Act

This bill would change how Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) is operated, with the goal of reducing congestion and changing how flights are scheduled.

What the bill would do

• Requires the FAA Administrator to review DCA’s airport arrival rate, taking into account the airport’s limited space, airspace complexity, mixed aircraft traffic, and overall volume of flights.
• Within 90 days of enactment, lowers DCA’s arrival rate to no more than 28 aircraft per hour.
• Within 180 days, turns that hourly limit into binding 30-minute caps so arrivals and departures are spread more evenly through each hour and do not cluster into short bursts.
• Orders the FAA to permanently eliminate 30 existing slot exemptions at DCA. These exemptions are special allowances that let certain flights operate despite slot limits.
• Requires at least 26 of the eliminated exemptions to be “beyond perimeter” exemptions, meaning exemptions for longer-haul flights beyond the airport’s usual distance limits.
• Sets out a public process for choosing which 30 exemptions will be removed, including public notice and a 60-day comment period.
• Phases in the elimination of those exemptions over 5 years, from 2028 through 2032, with 6 eliminated each year.
• Allows the Secretary of Transportation to delay removal of a slot exemption by up to one year in certain cases if the FAA determines that removing it would not produce a material and measurable safety improvement, but requires notice and another public comment period before a delay is used.
• Requires all of the exemption eliminations to be completed by December 31, 2032.
• Creates a permanent commission to study conditions at DCA and the effect of any future changes to slot exemptions. The commission would include officials from the airport authority, FAA, Department of Defense, Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
• Requires the commission to report to Congress by December 31, 2028, and at least every two years after that.
• Bars judicial review of the FAA Administrator’s decisions about eliminating slot exemptions or delaying their elimination under this bill.

Relevant Companies

• AAL - American Airlines could be affected because the bill references one of its flights in the airport safety findings and because reduced slots and changed scheduling at DCA could affect airline operations there.
• UAL - United Airlines could be affected for similar reasons, since the bill may reduce or reallocate access to DCA slots and longer-haul exemptions.