Now this is interesting: US Airways is starting service from Washington Reagan National (DCA) airport to Ottawa, Montreal, Birmingham, AL, and Tallahassee, FL on October 3. Birmingham and the two Canadian cities will get three flights a day each; Tallahassee is once a day.

DCA is, of course, slot-limited. Ottawa, Montreal, Birmingham, and Tallahassee were among the 15 cities that US Airways announced in August they would start service to from DCA with slots to be acquired from Delta Air Lines as part of a slot swap. That transaction is in limbo though, with the airlines planning to sue the DOT over its requirement that they sell off some slots as a condition for approval.

So where then are the 10 sets of slots for new routes coming from? Can’t completely rule out that US Airways might not have acquired a few slots along the way, but most of the slots seem to be coming from the arirline’s summer seasonal services from DCA (Bermuda, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard etc.) Which is to say, they US Airways are kicking the can down the road a bit, hoping the courts approve the slot swap, or something else develops.

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