Two U.S. senators from Virginia have introduced a bill that would reduce traffic at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with the aim of improving safety.
The “DCA Air Safety Act” would cap hourly arrivals at the airport, space out takeoffs and landings, and do away with 30 slots over five years. It would also require regular reports to Congress on traffic and overall safety at Reagan National.
The legislation was announced by Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner on Thursday. Both cited the fatal midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National last year as a motivating factor.
“In the wake of the midair collision that killed 67 people last year near DCA, Congress must do more to ensure that the highest level of safety regulations is in place to prevent future tragedies,” Kaine said in a statement. “While I support various proposals to help do that, it’s obvious that any set of reforms that doesn’t address overcrowding at this airport, which sits along restricted airspace and is already operating beyond capacity, is dangerously insufficient.”
The bill as written would require the FAA to reduce DCA’s airport arrival rate to no more than 28 aircraft per consecutive 60-minute period. It would also set up binding interval caps to reduce clustering of takeoffs and arrivals and cut six slots per year between 2028 and 2032.
The FAA would be in charge of determining which slots would be eliminated. The process would be public, the bill states, and interested parties would have a 60-day window to submit comments.
DCA is one of only three fully slot-controlled airports in the U.S., the others being New York-JFK and LaGuardia.
The senators said findings from the NTSB show overcrowding and strain on air traffic controllers contributed to the 2025 midair collision. On the night of the accident, they said, there was an 18-minute period in which one controller was responsible for managing 29 separate aircraft, including a five-minute span with six takeoffs or landings.
They also pointed out that, since 2000, DCA has added 64 daily slots.
“For years, Senator Kaine and I have been warning that DCA is overcrowded and have fought to reduce the number of slot exemptions at the airport,” Warner said in a statement. “The risks are now painfully clear, and Congress cannot wait for another tragedy to act.”
Following the NTSB’s final report on the collision, a problematic helicopter route near Reagan National was eliminated, and new policies and flight requirements were put in place for military helicopters flying in and around the area. But the airport continues to see close calls, and the airspace around Washington, D.C., remains among the busiest in the nation.
DCA is located in Arlington County, Virginia, and is one of three major airports serving the greater Washington metro area, the others being Washington Dulles, also in Virginia, and Baltimore/Washington in Maryland.
