US Airways resuming Islip-D.C. flights

After more than a decade, US Airways is to resume twice-daily nonstop service from Long Island MacArthur Airport to Washington's Reagan National Airport on Sunday.

"We're very pleased to come back to Islip and make it easy for local residents to get back and forth to the nation's capital," John McDonald, a US Airways spokesman, said Thursday.

The Ronkonkoma airport is preparing a welcome, with the airport's emergency fire rescue crew providing a water curtain greeting for the scheduled 12:50 p.m. arrival flight.

Members of the Long Island congressional delegation are expected to be on the tarmac for the arrival and the 1:28 p.m. return flight to D.C.

"It'll be a show -- something special," Islip Supervisor Tom Croci said. "It's the resumption of the kind of choices we want our residents and the airport customers to have -- to give them more places to fly to from Long Island MacArthur Airport." The facility is town-owned and operated.

Ordinarily, flights will depart MacArthur at 6:20 a.m. and 1:15 p.m. daily, returning from Reagan National at 11:35 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Amid security fears, the federal government limited flights into Washington after the 9/11 attacks, and flights from MacArthur were discontinued.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D- N.Y.), an advocate of the airport who pushed the carrier to resume the service, said Thursday the relaunch sent "a loud and clear message to other airlines that MacArthur is where it's at."

"[It] confirms the argument we have been making: Long Island has an untapped and lucrative market for convenient air travel. US Airways obviously gets that, and hopefully other airlines will too."

In 2009, the airline announced it was considering resuming twice-daily flights, pending approval from the federal government of a slot-swap with Delta at LaGuardia.

That approval came last year, and Schumer pressed the carrier publicly to make good on its pledge. It announced the resumption in January.

The airport has been trying to woo more commercial airline service and has hosted tours by executives from both Air Canada and JetBlue in recent months.

US Airways represents between 6 percent and 7 percent of overall passenger numbers out of MacArthur, officials said, but airport Commissioner Teresa Rizzuto said in January the airline is "disproportionately important to us because of their overall commitment to the airport."