Courtesy Photo / City of San Antonio
San Antonio International Airport could land its first direct flight to Washington, D.C., by late summer or early fall, officials said.
Well, that was fast.
On Wednesday — the same day the U.S. House approved an FAA reauthorization bill expanding the number of direct flights into the Washington, D.C., area — American Airlines said it plans to add one direct flight between San Antonio and the nation’s capital.
In a statement released by San Antonio International Airport, the Fort Worth-based air carrier said it will file an application with the feds to offer service from SA to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the reauthorization bill soon, and the Transportation Department would then have 60 days to begin accepting applications for five round-trip direct flights to the airport.
“San Antonio is one of the fastest growing cities in the country and is the largest unserved market in Texas from [Reagan National],” Nate Gatten, an American’s executive VP overseeing real estate and government affairs, said in the airport’s statement.
American Airlines could be cleared to offer the flight in late summer or early fall, airport officials told the Express-News.
San Antonio leaders have long sought a change to FAA rules limiting Reagan National’s number of direct flights, arguing that the city’s 82,000 active-duty and civilian military employees and its burgeoning cybersecurity sector need more efficient access to the U.S. capital.
While the city’s congressional delegation lobbied hard to include an expansion in the latest FAA reauthorization bill, they faced headwinds from D.C.-area politicos who argued more flights at Reagan National will posed safety risks and increase flight delays.
Industry insiders also cautioned that an expansion wouldn’t necessarily mean an airline would want to extend a flight to the Alamo City, whose airport ranked 45th in the U.S. in passenger traffic in 2022.
However, American Airlines was apparently persuaded that San Antonio’s status as “Military City, USA” means it will be able to fill at least one flight daily to Reagan National.
“We have been working for more than a decade to give residents of America’s seventh-largest city the same access to our nation’s leaders as nearly every other major city in the country,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in the airport’s statement.
Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter| Or sign up for our RSS Feed