SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio's dream of adding daily direct flights between the city and the nation's capitol could be one step closer to reality after the Senate's passage of a $105 billion aviation bill Thursday.
Among the many provisions in that bill: More daily round-trip flights at Reagan Washington National Airport, which sits just four miles from Capitol Hill. That's something that leaders on both sides of the aisle, including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and Sen. Ted Cruz, have advocated for.
The bipartisan bill now goes to the House, which is out of session until next week.
The language of the bill doesn't explicitly assign one of those additional flights to San Antonio International Airport, but Nirenberg on Thursday night posted on X that the city was "one step closer to the direct flight we've long sought and needed."
State and local leaders have long cited San Antonio's standing as Military City as well as its cybersecurity industries as primary reasons it should have direct flights to Washington DC. On a November 2023 visit to San Antonio's airport to push for the flights, Cruz said it should be "an easy decision."
"Every day there's between 150 and 200 flights from San Antonio to D.C.-Reagan, but they have to connect to other cities," the Republican senator said at the time.
One provision among many
The bipartisan bill, which comes after a series of close calls between planes at the nation’s airports, aims to boost the number of air traffic controllers amid a shortage, improve safety standards and make it easier for customers to get refunds after flights are delayed or canceled, among other measures.
After passing the legislation on a strong 88-4 vote, the Senate passed a one-week extension to ensure that the law doesn't expire before the House considers the bill next week. The FAA has said it would have had to furlough around 3,600 workers if the law expired at midnight Friday.
The bill stalled for several days this week after senators from Virginia and Maryland objected to the provision that would allow an additional 10 flights a day to and from the heavily trafficked Reagan Washington National Airport. Other senators tried to add unrelated provisions, as well, seeing it as a prime chance to enact their legislative priorities.
But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called a vote Thursday evening after it became clear that senators would not be able to agree on amendments to the bill before the law expired. The Senate then passed the one-week extension that the House had already passed, sending that to President Joe Biden's desk.
The legislation aims to increase the number of air traffic controllers, provides for more safety inspectors at manufacturing facilities and requires the FAA to use new technology designed to prevent collisions between planes on runways. It would require new airline planes to have cockpit voice recorders capable of saving 25 hours of audio, up from the current two hours, to help investigators after safety incidents.
It would try to improve customer service for flyers by requiring airlines to pay a refund to customers for flight delays — three hours for a domestic flight and six for an international one. Lawmakers tweaked the bill this week to make it even easier for customers to receive refunds, revising language that would have put most of the onus on the customers to request them. The change put the Senate bill more in line with new regulations issued by the Biden administration last week.
In addition, the bill would prohibit airlines from charging extra for families to sit together and triple the maximum fines for airlines that violate consumer laws. And it would require the Transportation Department to create a “dashboard” so consumers can compare seat sizes on different airlines.
Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, had pushed for a vote on their amendment to block the additional long-haul flights at Virginia's Reagan National. They say the airport is restricted in size and too busy already, pointing to a close call there between two planes earlier in April that they said is a “flashing red warning light.”
But Cruz, the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee and a senator up for reelection this year, blocked a vote on Kaine and Warner's amendment when Schumer tried to bring it up shortly before final passage.
Like lawmakers, airlines are also split on the idea of additional flights at Reagan National. Delta Airlines has argued for more flights, while United Airlines, with a major operation at farther-out Dulles Airport, has lobbied against the increase.
The House last year passed its own version of the FAA legislation without additional Reagan National flights after intense, last-minute lobbying from the Virginia delegation — a bipartisan vote on an amendment to the FAA bill that saw members aligning not by party but geographic location. Lawmakers use the airport frequently because it is the closest Washington airport to the Capitol, and Congress has long tried to have a say in which routes have service there.
“Some of our colleagues were too afraid to let the experts make the call,” Kaine and Warner said in a joint statement Thursday evening, after Cruz blocked a vote on their amendment. “They didn’t want to show the American people that they care more about a few lawmakers’ desire for direct flights than they care about the safety and convenience of the traveling public. That is shameful and an embarrassment.”
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