Opinion: Hawley proposal could improve air travel for Missourians

So many of us were stunned and horrified by the fatal collision between an Army helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 in Washington, DC last week. A lot of the conversation in the aftermath has focused on safety concerns that come from high traffic volumes and the risks we saw from those close calls at Reagan National Airport.

In Missouri, we should be concerned about a different issue. Our ability to fly in and out of our home state could well be impacted by two things. First, the dominance of Southwest Airlines at both of our major airports, and second, the fact that Southwest Airlines looks like an increasingly unreliable option stemming from manufacturing problems at Boeing.

Recently, news broke of Southwest cutting air routes in large part because it can’t get its orders of Boeing 737s safely fulfilled. This is a huge problem for Missouri, since Southwest is the largest carrier in both the Kansas City and St. Louis airports. Other airlines have pulled back, particularly at the St. Louis airport. Sadly, Missouri’s largest metro is falling behind: just looking at a weekday in January using Orbitz and Southwest’s website, fewer flights to St. Louis originate from major economic centers across the US than those same cities’ flights to Charlotte. This, despite St. Louis metro being slightly larger than Charlotte, NC metro.

And again, a disproportionately large number of flights into and out of St. Louis, as well as Kansas City, are Southwest flights. When Southwest makes cuts, the chances are Missouri loses out.

Missourians—and Americans more broadly—should find this alarming. We should also expect public leaders to help find solutions to this problem. Fortunately, Sen. Josh Hawley has authored legislation that would improve Missourians’ travel options, as well as the choices for visitors coming to our state.

Hawley’s Airport Gate Competition Act would increase “the number of common use gates, i.e., gates for shared, non-exclusive use by multiple airlines.” According to the Senator, “Increasing the availability of common use gates will make it easier for smaller, low-cost airlines to operate in airports dominated by major airlines. It would also make gate use more efficient, allowing airports to accommodate more airlines and flights without the cost of building new gates and adapt more easily to flight cuts and schedule changes.”

Sen. Hawley’s bill helps budget conscious flyers—those of us who need to travel in spite of the soaring cost of air travel in the US the past few years. Hawley says, “Consolidation in the airline industry helps multimillion dollar corporations and hurts working Americans. Increasing competition for the aviation giants will lower prices for travelers and allow the millions of Americans who fly to have options for their preferred travel – and that starts with increased gate access at airports.”

Most Missourians will be concerned about ongoing flight options should Southwest continue to pare back. But cost should also be a concern: Airline tickets cost 29 percent more now than they did in 2021, far higher than the “official” rate of inflation of sixteen percent.

As we look forward to relief in the second Trump administration, Missourians have high hopes for our state to be at the forefront of the American economic revival. And while hope is not a strategy—Sen. Hawley does appear to have developed a plan to make life better and cheaper, to promote more investment and job-creation here at home. I urge other Members of Congress and this administration to follow this lead.