WASHINGTON, June 6 Reuters Delta Air Lines plans to announce on Thursday it will apply for a new flight between Seattle and Washington Reagan National Airport as airlines battle over five new daily flights.

On May 16, U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation creating the new flights at the busy airport in Arlington, Virginia. The law requires the U.S. Transportation Department to award the new flights by midJuly.

The Washington region has three major airports, but Reagan National is the closest to the U.S. Capitol and downtown. Because of its short runways, its main runway is the busiest in the United States, and Reagan is the 23rdbusiest U.S. airport by passengers.

Delta President Glen Hauenstein will announce the airline39;s plan to apply at a news conference in Seattle, where the airline is marking its inaugural nonstop flight to Taipei from the United States.

If Delta is successful, it would compete with Alaska Airlines, which operates the two current daily flights from Seattle to Reagan.

The addition of this flight will bring muchneeded competition to a route with some of the highest ticket prices in the country, Delta said.

For more than a year, Delta heavily lobbied for the change and had pushed for adding far more daily flights while United Airlines opposed it.

Southwest Airlines said it will apply for a new daily flight between Washington and Las Vegas, which has only one flight per day on American Airlines. Southwest projects the flight would…