Up In The Air
Bush’s plan to reopen Reagan National Airport.

October 2, 2001 10:45 a.m.

or passengers who fly in and out of Washington's Reagan National Airport, the good news is that planes will soon be flying again. The bad news is that there will be far fewer of them than before the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Under increasing pressure from local politicians and business leaders, this morning George W. Bush traveled to Reagan to announce the airport's reopening. "It's time to start flying again," the president said. "There is no greater symbol that America is back in business than the reopening of this airport."

Bush said there would be increased security measures at Reagan, which he said "reflect the new and tight security concerns that all Americans share." But in his speech he did not detail the administration's complex, multi-part plan for the airport's new operations. According to White House officials, this is how the plan will work:

The airport will open in two phases. Phase One will begin this Thursday, when shuttle service to New York and Boston will resume. Also around that time, service between Reagan and six cities — Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Dallas, Minneapolis, and Newark — will start up. White House officials say Phase One will last about three weeks.

During that time, there will be several restrictions on service. No aircraft with seating capacity above 156 passengers will be allowed to fly. Flights will be confined to the period between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. And service will be limited to about 190 flights per day — just 24 percent of the 792 flights that flew each day before the terrorist attacks.

The White House says Phase One will last about three weeks. After that, Phase Two will begin. Larger planes will still be banned, but total service will rise to about 450 flights per day (about 57 percent of the old level). Officials will allow direct flights to ten additional cities — locations have not been announced. The White House says Phase Two will last between 30 and 45 days after the completion of Phase One.

There will be no general-aviation, or private-plane, traffic at the airport during Phase One and Phase Two.

During that time, the administration says there will be greatly enhanced security measures at the airport. There will be federal air marshals on some flights, but White House officials will not say how many. There will be random searches of passengers at gates, plus identification checks as passengers board their planes. There will be more police patrolling. And flight crews that fly in and out of Reagan will face mandatory security screening.

After Phase One and Phase Two are completed, the White House says there will be a "resumption of normal commercial operations" at Reagan. Still, it is not clear how closely that schedule will resemble the way the airport ran before September 11.