The region’s Senators and Airport Authority officials came out against a proposal to expand the number of flights at Washington National Airport. They held a press conference at the airport Monday afternoon.

Delta Airlines and some members of Congress want to add 56 more long-distance flights into and out of DCA. Delta wants the additional slots. Congressmembers want to enable easier access to D.C. without a longer drive from BWI or Dulles airports.

The fight is rooted in the Federal Aviation Administration’s reauthorization bill, which mandates the slot and perimeter rules. The slot rule aims to manage congestion at five of the country’s busiest airports. The perimeter rule limits non-stop service to airports within 1,250 miles, with a few exceptions in Austin, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Juan, Seattle, and Portland, Ore.

It’s long been a local laugh-line that Dulles is an airport of last resort and that you’d never offer to pick up a friend from there because of the distance and grinding traffic (your abandoned friend can take the Silver Line at least). Regional leaders long ago decided that Dulles and BWI were meant for longer-haul and international flights, while DCA would serve closer East Coast and Midwest destinations.

But all 4 Senators from Virginia and Maryland, Tim Kaine, Mark Warner, Ben Cardin, and Chris Van Hollen say increasing the number of flights into National would create more flight delays, more noise above neighborhoods, and have negative impacts on Dulles and BWI airports.

“This airport was built on a footprint that was determined to be sufficient for 15 million passenger trips a year. It’s now at 24 million,” Kaine said. “To add 56 more flights here would upset all of these balances that are maintained by operating the airports the way that they’re currently operated.”

Sen. Cardin said all three airports need to remain viable and decisions shouldn’t be dictated by politics.

“When you take this airport here and you try to take it even further beyond its design capacity, you’re going to have challenges and you’re going to have problems and it’s going to affect this region,” he said.

Longer-range flights bring large planes that take more time to load and unload and make more noise. The FAA agrees that adding 20 more round-trip daily flights could exacerbate delays by 25%.

Those in favor of more flights say it allows the market to meet consumer demand, it could lower ticket costs, and create more jobs.

Kaine said Congress once ran Reagan National, but was so bad it they created the Metropolitian Washington Airports Authority to take over the operations.

“The last thing we should do is let Congress start to micromanage this again,” Kaine said.

MWAA CEO Jack Potter says National has the busiest runway in the nation and no room to expand. It also has higher cancellation and delay rates than regional rivals BWI near Baltimore and Dulles in Loudoun County.

Sen. Warner noted that more pilots and flight attendants from American Airlines were set to attend the press conference, but they were snarled by delays getting to DCA.

“They got boxed out by flight delays happening today,” he said. “But it’s an example of the kind of overflow we’ve got at National already… the fact that so many of our American (Airlines) pilots could not end up showing up today.”

Warner argues that growth should happen at Dulles because it is 14 times bigger than National. He understands people want more convenience flying in closer to the capital, but he said it would inconvenience more passengers for the benefit of a few congress members. He said it could also take away service from smaller cities in the eastern half of the U.S.

It’s unclear when the fight in Congress could be resolved, but the senators said they would vote against a package that includes any more flights at DCA — even if it is a smaller number. A vote could come as soon as this week.