Bush trying again to stem holiday flight delays

By JENNIFER LOVEN AP White House Correspondent
Published: November 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Some of those closest to the frustrating delays many travelers experience at U.S. airports are hoping President George W. Bush plans more expansive steps than he took last year to combat the holiday crunch.

Bush was outlining his strategy for reducing air traffic congestion and long flight delays in a speech Tuesday at the Transportation Department before hundreds of employees there.

He was expected to revive a move made last year by the Pentagon: temporarily opening corridors of airspace from Florida to Maine that usually are used for military exercises to create more dedicated room for commercial planes. Last year, the military airspace was made available for commercial use during the five busiest travel days of Thanksgiving week, and repeated during peak Christmas season travel as well. Around Christmas, the Pentagon opened a West Coast section of airspace, as well.

Bush will talk about that Tuesday, as well as other “new and continuing efforts” to help make holiday travel easier, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

Last year, in addition to the extra military airspace, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance projects, allowing all FAA personnel and equipment to be focused on keeping flights on time. The FAA took other steps to increase efficiency, such as rerouting airspace, using technology to fill unused space in the air and on the ground, and using more precise routes for takeoffs and landings.

The moves last year were welcomed, particularly as a help when bad weather materializes. But they didn’t get to the heart of the problem causing congestion and flight delays — the need for more airports and air traffic control personnel.

“It had marginal impact,“ said David A. Castelveter, vice president for communications at the Air Transport Association, a trade group representing major airlines. “The main reason for the good performance we saw over both holidays last year was good weather.“

The union representing air traffic controllers also said that last year’s efforts made little difference, and that this year’s steps are unlikely to provide any significant relief either.

“It is all for show and, frankly, this show is getting quite tiresome to the American traveling public that has gotten fed up with mounting delays and FAA mismanagement that has degraded the system during the current administration,“ National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church said.

About 24 million passengers are expected to fly over the 12 days considered to cover the Thanksgiving holiday this year, Castelveter said. That’s about 10 percent fewer than last year, but airlines have taken about 10 percent of their capacity out of the system at the same time, meaning planes will be just as crowded. Castelveter said airplanes will be about 90 percent full at peak travel times and will be 100 percent full in key markets.

Among the programs Bush is expected to tout is the federal push under his administration for an experiment to auction off takeoff and landing times at the three major New York City-area airports, John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark-Liberty. Like the freeing of military airspace, the auction is aimed at combatting what federal officials say is one of the biggest sources of nationwide flight delays — the fact that two out of three flights delayed 15 minutes or more were due to cascading backups beginning at one of those three airports.

An auction, they say, will use market forces of supply and demand to make airports more efficient, and they are racing to get the auction plan in place before they leave office in three months, with auction winners to be announced in early January. Airlines and airports are sprinting to court to stop them.

The Transportation Department also announced plans to spend $89 million on taxiway improvements at Kennedy, and they have capped the number of flights coming into or out of the three New York-area airports.

Another improvement Bush will probably highlight is opening of three new runways just on Thursday at big, busy airports, Washington-Dulles, Chicago-O’Hare and Seattle.

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Associated Press writer Joan Lowy contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.