TIL Why There Are No Non-Stop Flights from SFO to National Airport

http://blog.hipmunk.com/why-its-hard-to-get-a-convenient-flight-to-ne

by kn0thing • 16 years ago

17 20 16 years ago

blog.hipmunk.com

spydez• 16 years ago

TIL == Today I Learned

Trying to sneak Reddit terminology onto HN, Alexis? :P

kn0thing2• 16 years ago

Force of habit. Hmm, it's not long now until HN Gonewild.

DougBTX2• 16 years ago

Any chance that there is data to show whether they were right? I mean, I strongly suspect that there isn't. But I'd be interested if there is either way.

eli4• 16 years ago

Right about what? That more people fly out of Dulles because they can't get a direct flight out of National? Seems pretty obvious.

DougBTX2• 16 years ago

No, whether they were right that the airport would fail due to lack of custom without intervention.

ganley2• 16 years ago

Interesting. I always heard it was because they didn't want the really big (loud) international planes flying in urban airspace.

Regardless, a variety of people (particularly congresscritters) have been trying for years to get that restriction lifted.

marklabedz2• 16 years ago

The noise factor has been part of the argument. (Whether or not that makes for a valid argument is certainly up for debate.)

eli4• 16 years ago

I'm not sure about the original reasoning, but I'm sure that's why some people still support the restriction. Or, at least, that's what they claim.

Seems like if noise is the problem, then noise is what is what you should regulate. The exact same plane that today flies from DCA to Houston could just as well fly to Seattle.

natrius• 16 years ago

Dallas has the same issue with DFW and Love Field.

kgermino• 16 years ago

The Wright Amendment [1] is a slightly different issue. IIRC the plan was to end all scheduled passenger service at Love Field when DFW opened. Southwest was started after the initial agreement and fought the restriction. Since then the Wright Amendment has been steadily relaxed, and it will be repealed completely in 2014. Additionally Southwest is not allowed to fly from DFW because of the agreement to end the Wright Amendment.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Amendment

sprout2• 16 years ago

Meh. Flying into Baltimore is usually cheaper anyway, and DC area public transit is fantastic. (Well, compared to Ohio.)

ganley2• 16 years ago

Not compared to much of anywhere else. If you live outside the beltway (and BTW, Dulles Airport is WAY outside the beltway) then our public transit system is useless. Even inside the beltway, it's slow, expensive, and unreliable.

(Note: I am a huge fan of public transit, so that's not a general bash. DC's sucks unless both ends of your trip are within walking distance of a subway station.)

Tamerlin• 16 years ago

You're ahead of Seattle. I came here from DC, and wow what a step backward.

As it turns out, we had a trolley-based mass transit system until GM and Ford (and Exxon?) bought it up and dismantled it. (No joke.)

When I lived in Sterling, it was a 15-minute drive to Dulles. When I moved to Silver Spring, it was a 45-minute drive.

From Sterling, there were no mass transit options whatsoever, AFAIK. Of course, with a 15-minute trip, there's really not much incentive to look for alternatives.

From Silver Spring, you CAN get to Dulles via mass transit... I had to walk to a bus stop, take the red line downtown, change to the orange line out to West Falls Church, and take a Washington Flyer to the airport: 2.5 hours.

So I agree... worthless.

I also found that biking from Silver Spring to Crystal City took approximately the same amount of time as the bus/metro combination, and had fewer delays.

Would you believe, btw, that Seattle's equivalent to the Metropass has a 24-hour latency? So if you put money on it, you have to wait for 24 hours before you can use it?

_3ex7• 16 years ago

COTA rocks!............

eli4• 16 years ago

Public transit from BWI means, you either have to take Amtrak, MARC (only on weekdays), or a bus to the Metro (which can take 45-60 minutes during rush hour).

If you're flying from Ohio, it will probably take you longer to get from BWI to your destination in DC than from Ohio to BWI.

kn0thing2• 16 years ago

I often train into the BWI Amtrak station, so if you happen to ever see a tall white guy with a reddit/breadpig/YC/threadless shirt (I don't have a lot of diversity) -- say hi!

And then we can lament the often crappy service together.

sprout2• 16 years ago

Presently I'm in the middle of nowhere, on the other side of the country. Ohio is just the only thing I have for comparison.

marklabedz2• 16 years ago

There was also a perimeter rule governing flights at Dallas Love Field after DFW was built. A compromise was reached a few years ago. Here's an article from the Dallas Morning News summarizing the effects of the change: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-l...

edw519• 16 years ago

Kinda ironic you can't get to the Colbert rally by flying into the airport named after the individual who fired 11,000 air traffic controllers, de-certified their union, and banned them from their profession for life.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12292.html

eli4• 16 years ago

If it makes you feel any better the airport was named after George Washington first and pretty much everyone who lives in DC calls it "National"

TIL Why There Are No Non-Stop Flights from SFO to National Airport

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