Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport

Ronald Reagan Washington National is the closest major airport to the U.S. capital, handling roughly 25.5M passengers (2024) from a site just 5 km (3 mi) from the U.S. Capitol across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. DCA operates under the most restrictive slot and operating regime of any major U.S. airport: the FAA-administered Slot Control rule, the 1,250-mile 'Perimeter Rule' (which caps non-stop flights to within that radius with limited congressional exemptions), a strict 22:00–07:00 curfew, and heavily restricted airspace linked to the Capital Region security zone — flight paths must follow the Potomac precisely on approach. American Airlines operates its largest East Coast hub at DCA with more than 150 peak daily departures, supported by secondary operations from Delta, United, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, and Frontier. The airport is a major political-travel market — members of Congress and federal agencies drive outsize business-fare demand — and DCA is virtually the only U.S. airport where 'beyond perimeter' slot exemptions generate bitter legislative fights for new West Coast routes (e.g., San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland, Phoenix, San Diego, San Antonio). The network reaches 110 destinations across 18 airlines. Three runways, led by 01/19 at just 7,169 ft (2,185 m) — short by major-airport standards — constrain DCA to narrowbody-only operations with no widebody service. The constraint is geographic: the airport sits on 860 acres (348 ha) of reclaimed Potomac shoreline, bounded by the river, the George Washington Parkway, and the Pentagon, with no room to extend. Terminal 2 (formerly Terminals B and C, designed by Cesar Pelli with a signature curved-window concourse and National Airport War Memorial inside security) opened in 1997; Terminal 1 (the original 1941 terminal) handles Southwest and Frontier. DCA retains a unique landside-to-airside pedestrian experience by U.S. standards — the Metro station sits inside the airport footprint.