Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.
SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
America West Airlines has asked U.S. regulators to let the carrier take over two National Airlines slots at Reagan Washington National Airport, enabling America West to add flights to Las Vegas.
National isn't using the slots and the Department of Transportation has said if service was started and suspended, the slots would be reallocated, America West said in a statement Tuesday.
A slot is one take-off or landing at the airport, which has a restriction on the number of flights that can be operated from beyond a 1,250-mile perimeter.
Las Vegas-based National, which hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next month, had no comment on the America West announcement. National has appealed to the Department of Transportation for an extension of its use of the slots, which would expire Oct. 23.
A Department of Transportation spokesman said today he did not know the status of National's appeal or what other airlines have filed for the slots. America West currently has four slots, using them for two round trips from Phoenix.
In addition to National's slots, Frontier Airlines uses slot exemptions for round trips from Denver and American uses two for flights to Los Angeles, taking those over when it acquired TWA, which won the slots in 2000.
When the Department of Transportation first opened up the slots for flight proposals in 1999, 19 airlines applied for them.
America West and National, competitors on several routes and bitter rivals, are the second and third largest airlines, respectively, serving McCarran International Airport.
McCarran is America West's second-largest hub after Phoenix, where the carrier is based. The eighth-largest U.S. airline earlier this month said it would increase service from Las Vegas to 85 daily departures to 38 destinations by the end of this year.
Closely held National said earlier this month it reached agreement on a $112 million financing package that would help the airline emerge from bankruptcy protection in early October. National was rejected last month by the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board for a $50.5 million government loan guarantee.
The airline has said the loan rejection resulted in its inability to restart service to Reagan National, discontinued after the terrorist attacks closed the airport to large planes the airline uses.
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