Perimeter restrictions
A plane flying the River Visual approach by the Lincoln Memorial.

Reagan National Airport is subject to a federally-mandated perimeter limitation and may not accommodate nonstop flights to or from cities beyond a 1,250-statute mile (2,010 km) radius, with limited exceptions. The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued "beyond-perimeter slot exemptions" which allow specified carriers to operate 12 daily round-trip flights to cities outside the perimeter. These exemptions are allocated as follows:

US Airways (8 slots operating as 3x Phoenix, 1x Las Vegas)
Alaska Airlines (6 slots operating as 2x Seattle/Tacoma, 1x Los Angeles)
Frontier Airlines (6 slots operating as 3x Denver)
Delta Air Lines (2 slots operating as 1x Salt Lake City)
United Airlines (2 slots operating as 1x Denver)

In 1999, Senator John McCain of Arizona introduced legislation to remove the 1,250-statute mile (2,010 km) perimeter restriction,[citation needed] infuriating some local residents concerned about noise and traffic from increased service by larger, long-haul aircraft. McCain argued that the move would improve competition, while critics[specify] charged he was supporting the interests of Phoenix, Arizona-based America West Airlines (AWA). In the end the restriction was not lifted, but the FAA was permitted to add additional exemptions, which went not to AWA but to competitor Alaska Airlines. America West (now US Airways) later gained additional exemptions for non-stop service to Phoenix in 2004.

Originally the airport had no perimeter rule; in 1954-1960 airlines scheduled nonstop flights to California on piston-engine airliners.[citation needed] Scheduled jet airliners were not allowed at all until April 1966; the perimeter rule arrived with them, and apparently applied only to them. The initial perimeter was 650 statute miles (1,050 km), except that airports under 1,000 statute miles (1,600 km) that had scheduled nonstops in 1965 were allowed to retain them. This meant Minneapolis-St Paul was allowed nonstop jet flights but Kansas City, New Orleans, and Fort Lauderdale were not. In 1981 the perimeter became a flat 1,000 statute miles (1,600 km); it expanded to 1,250 statute miles (2,010 km), enough to encompass Houston, in 1986-87.

Republic Airways Holdings Inc. (RJET) is studying whether to sell planes and airport landing rights in Washington to help raise about $113 million in a second round of restructuring at its unprofitable Frontier Airlines unit.
The plan also includes removing a lavatory to make room for three more seats on some of the carrier’s Airbus SAS jets and indefinitely deferring some aircraft purchases from Embraer SA (EMBR3), Chief Executive Officer Bryan Bedford told employees in a memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
Republic came up $15 million short of its goal for an unrestricted cash reserve of at least $200 million in the third quarter, Bedford wrote. The Indianapolis-based airline is projected to post a profit when it reports results next month, based on estimates from seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
“Absent asset sales, we will be even further below that target by the end of the year,” Bedford said. “So again, we have to make tough choices, and we will.”
Republic isn’t discussing Bedford’s memo because it was an internal letter to employees and not intended for distribution outside the company, Peter Kowalchuk, a spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mail.