Why is there no proper executive airport for Washington DC? W32 and VKX are unsuitable for anything other than light pistons. Before 9/11 DCA averaged 122 general aviation flights a day. Now it is down to seven thanks to knee-jerk legislation requiring asinine procedures such as having an armed guard onboard and only allowing flights from certain airports. GA pilots or those who own their own aircraft should not have to deal with the mess of getting to DC from IAD or BWI. When will common sense prevail and relax the rules for GA aircraft at DCA? It's a public use facility and funded by taxpayers. It should be open to all.

TTailedTiger wrote:

Why is there no proper executive airport for Washington DC? W32 and VKX are unsuitable for anything other than light pistons. Before 9/11 DCA averaged 122 general aviation flights a day. Now it is down to seven thanks to knee-jerk legislation requiring asinine procedures such as having an armed guard onboard and only allowing flights from certain airports. GA pilots or those who own their own aircraft should not have to deal with the mess of getting to DC from IAD or BWI. When will common sense prevail and relax the rules for GA aircraft at DCA? It's a public use facility and funded by taxpayers. It should be open to all.

When? Never. Is never good for you?

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

The whole DCA airspace is a joke—if needed there, why not an SFRA around every city in the US? What’s so special about the Versailles on the Potomac?

KIAD is pretty much the deal now. I’ve flown into KDCA in everything from a Cherokee to a B727 including zillions of times in a Citation. I spoke with a armed guard for a corporate operator that goes in there. “My job is to shoot the pilots if they try anything threatening to DC, so then I die in the crash because no one can fly the plane, great thinking, huh?”

Agreed, there is no logic to it at all. It wasn't a GA aircraft that was involved in the attacks but yet they have suffered the most.

There is zero reason to allow GA aircraft into DCA. If you'd like to fly into DCA, buy a ticket.

blockski wrote:

There is zero reason to allow GA aircraft into DCA. If you'd like to fly into DCA, buy a ticket.

Why do you have a problem with GA aircraft using public airports? So long as they pay landing and facility fees they have just as much right as anyone else.

IADCA wrote:

TTailedTiger wrote:

blockski wrote:

There is zero reason to allow GA aircraft into DCA. If you'd like to fly into DCA, buy a ticket.

Why do you have a problem with GA aircraft using public airports? So long as they pay landing and facility fees they have just as much right as anyone else.

It's a slightly different equation at a slot-controlled airport where the primary limitation on commercial operations is runway capacity. As much as I'd like to be able to plonk down at DCA in a 172, it wouldn't exactly efficient in terms of resource allocation for me to do that while a packed A321 is doing S-turns to try to stay behind me and I'm holding up an entire arrivals stream.

Of course courtesy comes into play. I've landed the 172 at busy airports but at off-peak times. Usually ATC is happy to work with you if you are flexible. But a King Air or Citation Jet shouldn't cause any problems at all. Like I posted earlier, DCA used to handle 100+ GA flights per day and it wasn't an issue.

TTailedTiger wrote:

blockski wrote:

There is zero reason to allow GA aircraft into DCA. If you'd like to fly into DCA, buy a ticket.

Why do you have a problem with GA aircraft using public airports? So long as they pay landing and facility fees they have just as much right as anyone else.

Well, not at a slot controlled airport like DCA. What's the compelling public policy reason to have GA flights hogging valuable slots?

DCA is moving more passengers now than ever before. In the ten years before 9/11, DCA averaged about 15-16m annual passengers; since 2015 the airport hasn't had less than 23m annual passengers.