Bush targets air travel delays
President announces a series of steps to ease congestion over the coming holidays.
By Times Wires
Published November 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - In a year of record delays, President Bush stepped forward Thursday to try to speed American air travelers to their Thanksgiving gatherings and back home on time.
Declaring that "business as usual is not good enough for American travelers," Bush announced at the White House a series of detailed technical steps to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded and turned holiday travel into "a season of dread for too many Americans."
In the most innovative move, the Pentagon will allow commercial airliners to use two air corridors off the eastern seaboard that are normally restricted to military flights. Supplementing the dozen air routes regularly used from Florida to New England, they will create "a Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airliners from 4 p.m. Wednesday through Nov. 24.
A spokesman at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa said the president's decision would have minimal impact on the base's air operations. The base is home to U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, which spearhead the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bush noted that his proposals fall far short of the major overhaul needed to end air travel congestion that takes its toll on wallets and patience. The long-term solution, Bush said, lies partially in economic incentives such as higher landing and takeoff fees at peak hours as part of a system to lure passengers to lower-priced off-peak flights.
"Market-based incentives like these would encourage airlines to spread out their flights more evenly during the day to make better use of neighboring airports and to move the maximum number of passengers as quickly and efficiently as possible," Bush said.
The so-called "congestion pricing" plan has been discussed with airline officials in recent weeks, Bush said. The concept is in an FAA modernization bill that Bush proposed in February.
"If we really want to solve this problem, it's time for Congress to modernize the FAA, and we've given them a blueprint to do so," Bush said.
The Air Transport Association, which represents the major U.S. airlines, has complained that congestion pricing would lead to higher ticket prices and unfair restrictions on demand.
Association president James C. May said his group shares the administration's "frustrations" and praised Bush and federal officials "for the numerous operational steps they are taking to improve air service and reduce delays."
But aviation industry consultant Michael Boyd of Denver called it "a silly photo op" with little impact.
"So we're going to open up military airspace, that's not much," Boyd said. "The problem is the air traffic control system that is so far out of date and needs to be fixed immediately."
"We don't have airline delays. We have FAA delays mainly," Boyd said, rapping Bush's announcement as "Pablum for the people."
On Capitol Hill, airline executives told the House aviation subcommittee they will reduce overbooking during the holidays and add ticketing staff. Airport association executives said they are finding places to sleep, including cots, and food and water for people who are stranded.
The chief benefit of using the military air routes would be to "get people out of the New York area quicker, especially if we have (bad) weather up and down the East Coast," said Nancy Kalinowski, systems operations vice president at the FAA. This could have a wider impact because 75 percent of the nation's air traffic delays are traced to congestion problems in the New York area.
Through September, more than 24 percent of U.S. flights arrived late, the worst on-time performance since data collection began in 1995. In these Transportation Department figures, on-time means less than 15 minutes late.
Many of the new moves also will be in effect for Christmas but even some of the short-term steps Bush announced won't take place until next summer at the earliest. Bush said the FAA would move to double the compensation airlines must pay to passengers bumped from overbooked flights. Currently, passengers forced to wait more than two hours for another flight receive $400 from the airline.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters acknowledged airlines would pass along to passengers some of the costs of higher fees and penalties. But she said, "Travelers already pay now for the lack of reliability, the lack of knowing they'll get there on time."
Information from the Associated Press and Cox News Service was used in this report.
Fast facts
Bush's proposals
-Military airspace along the East Coast will be freed up for use by commercial flights during the five-day Thanksgiving weekend and possibly at Christmas.
-A holiday moratorium will be imposed on nonessential maintenance projects, so all personnel and equipment will be focused on keeping flights on time.
-An FAA Web site, www.fly.faa.gov, will provide up-to-date information about airport delays.
-The FAA will move to double compensation airlines must pay to passengers bumped from flights. Passengers forced to wait more than two hours for another flight now receive $400.