Southwest Airlines is taking a hands-on approach in its bid to be awarded permanent flight exemption slots to serve Kansas City from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The carrier is crowdsourcing support from Kansas City area travelers with an online petition requesting the Department of Transportation grant Southwest permanent rights to fly the daily route.
The online petition can be found at www.kctodc.com.
Southwest says without its daily large jet service to the nation’s capital, Kansas City would have just three US Airways operated regional jet flights a day to DC with an average capacity of only 63 seats each.
Southwest’s executive vice president and Chief Legal Officer Ron Ricks said three other carriers are eyeing KCI-DCA slot exemptions but would serve other destinations from Washingon DC.
"Kansas City is now in competition with these other cities for service to and from DC," he said.
Southwest gained temporary possession of the flight slot in February when Frontier Airlines ended its Kansas City service.
As Washington’s only ‘downtown’ airport, flight capacity at Ronald Reagan National is restricted, meaning airlines must secure dedicated ‘slots’ or ‘slot exemptions’ to operate scheduled flights.
