From Dulles to Dallas, JFK to LAX, large airports, combined with small GA airports serve General Aviation and the public at large. Even if you have never been to a small GA airport there is a good chance the person flying you home for Thanksgiving trained at one.
The Coast Guard, Air Force, Army and even the Navy (just one) have air bases open to General Aviation so why is Regan National closed?
Just prior to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 the FAA temporarily closed a huge chunk of airspace around Washington D.C. as a precaution. In 2006 the FAA issued a Notice proposing the temporary rules become permanent and subsequently over 20,000 responses were received, of which the vast majority were in opposition to making the temporary rules permanent.
There were two public hearings and every speaker, expert and common pilot alike was opposed, yet without Congressional approval the air space around D.C. was essentially shut down permanently to GA traffic, aka the flying public. Originally the closure involved over 11,000 square miles impacting 33 General Aviation airports but the FAA later reduced this to roughly 2,800 square miles impacting just four airports consisting of three in Maryland called the "Maryland Three" and Reagan National.
If you take an online course, submit to a federal background check, get fingerprinted at Reagan National, report in person to the FAA field office at BWI and meet with one the Maryland Three security officers you will likely be assigned a special code and phone number to use when filing a flight plan into the Maryland Three. However, Reagan National still remains off limits.
There was a time when pictures like the one above were common place. Our Capital was open to the public on the ground and sky. Many pilots for years have argued the Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA) is unnecessary That it's harmful to the economy of small airports and aviation-related businesses in the greater Washington D.C. area. Pilots involved in law enforcement have described the SFRA as a "major, unnecessary burden on pilots and air traffic controllers with almost no increased security benefits."
Why, if experts believe there is little or no increase in security do we, the people tolerate yet another erosion of our supposedly free society? I would argue that this erosion of our freedom goes beyond the ability of pilots to fly into Reagan National. We as a nation are continually giving up rights and feedoms when our government and leaders convince us it's for our own good, our own safety.
The safety argument closing Reagan National is false and yet Congress fails to act. Being lulled by a false sense of security carries it's own risk as much as the continued erosion of our rights, afforded to us by the free society we think we live in. As Benjamin Franklin said “Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
