Bush orders to open military space to reduce Thanksgiving air travel jam |
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-16 06:12:17 | |
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon will open part of its unused military airspace to commercial airlines as President George W. Bush's administration tries to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that are expected to hit the country during Thanksgiving, the government said on Thursday. An unused military airspace from Florida to Maine will be opened to create a "Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airlines from Wednesday through Sunday, the busiest days of thanksgiving travel, the White House said. The new measure will also apply to the Christmas travel season, it added. Calling holiday travel "a season of dread for too many Americans," Bush said that "anybody who has been traveling" are clear about the problems including very crowded airports, stranded travelers and delayed flights sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours. "These failures carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience they cause but in the business they obstruct and the family gatherings they cause people to miss," Bush said. Apart from "Thanksgiving express lane," other measures were also under consideration to channel air traffic including charging airlines higher landing and takeoff fees at peak hours, he added. According to the Air Transport Association, the U.S. domestic carriers are expected to fly roughly 27 million passengers worldwide over 12 days beginning Nov. 16, with planes about 90 percent full. |
| Editor: Mu Xuequan |
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/16/content_7084554.htm
A new role for Bush: Air traffic controller
But critics say plan will do little to help
WASHINGTON
With Thanksgiving and peak holiday travel approaching, President Bush announced several steps Thursday aimed at alleviating "the epidemic of aviation delays," but critics immediately said the moves lacked the necessary substance to make much of a difference.
The Pentagon, for its part, is opening "Thanksgiving Express Lanes," freeing some of the military's dedicated airspace to commercial airlines along the Eastern seaboard for five days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday. Meanwhile, airlines have promised to make available more workers for passenger check-ins, baggage handling and relief for bumped passengers, as well as additional ticket-dispensing kiosks.
The president's action on aviation comes at a time of increasing congestion at the nation's biggest airports -- particularly in the New York metropolitan area -- which has caused nationwide flight delays, cancellations and baggage losses. Domestic airlines expect to fly 27 million people worldwide during the holiday period starting Friday -- a 4 percent increase over last year, with planes averaging 90 percent capacity, according to the Air Transport Association, the major airlines' trade group.
"We can restore the confidence of America's consumers, improve the efficiency of America's airports and bring order to America's skies," Bush said, using a White House podium to promise answers for "the epidemic of aviation delays. ... It's one thing to analyze the problem, but the American people expect us to come up with some solutions."
Many aviation experts immediately blasted the Bush administration's measures as a last-ditch effort to prevent chaos in the coming days, and they said it shows how politicized airline flight delays have become in the worst year to fly since overscheduling caused a near-meltdown of the airline industry in 2000.
The experts said the White House's strategy represents a mixture of old initiatives to simply urge the airlines -- without any threat of enforcement -- to ensure ticket counters, aircraft and baggage sorting rooms are adequately staffed this holiday season.
"This is President Bush saying, 'Let me get out there just days before Thanksgiving and make it look like I'm doing something,'" said Joe Brancatelli, a travel columnist who focuses on how the airlines run their businesses and treat their customers.
Not impressed
Brancatelli dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration's announcement Thursday that it will help head off flight delays by imposing a special holiday moratorium on most airport maintenance projects, saying it is a standard procedure that should be done anyway, just as highway departments routinely halt road construction over holidays.
Likewise, the administration's promise Thursday to double the compensation that airlines would have to pay passengers who are bumped from overbooked flights, starting next summer, will do nothing to address flight delays and airport congestion -- either now, next summer or ever.
Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said, "We are determined not to let airline delays turn holiday cheer into runway gloom. Now, if we get an ice storm up and down the Eastern seaboard, I'm going to tell you, it probably won't be pretty. But we're going to take every precaution we can to make sure that we can handle passengers and handle them well."
Bush announced several federal actions aimed initially at easing travel during the Thanksgiving holiday. Aside from opening the reserved military airspace from Maine to Florida, there will be a "holiday moratorium on all non-essential work" at the FAA, so all its personnel and equipment can be used to keep flights on time and reduce bottlenecks in New York and Newark, N.J., in particular. Bush called air traffic there "the source of most chronic delays."
With an eye toward improving air traffic in the long-run, the president proposed new federal regulations to ensure that passengers are "treated fairly." This includes a proposed doubling of compensation for passengers bumped from overbooked flights -- raising it from $400 to $800 for bumped passengers whose travel is delayed by more than two hours.
Congestion pricing
Bush also called for congestion pricing for the airlines, such as increased airport fees at peak hours and auctioning of rights to "the highest-value flights," to encourage carriers to spread flights over more hours. The FAA has opened a Web site --http://www.fly.faa.gov/ -- enabling travelers to check delay times.
Bush called on Congress to "modernize" the FAA.
The administration is proposing legislation to "upgrade" aviation technology with a more automated air-traffic control network based on global positioning satellite technology rather than a radar and radio-based system that dates to World War II. The bill includes a "blueprint" for market pricing to reduce congestion.
The president's call for action caps a year of poor performance by the airline industry. Through September, more than 24 percent of flights arrived late, according to the Department of Transportation -- the worst on-time performance since data was first collected in 1995.
James May, president of the Air Transport Association, said, "We share the administration's frustrations and applaud the efforts of President Bush, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense for the numerous operational steps they are taking to improve air service and reduce delays. Airlines remain focused on improving the service that they provide to customers."
Military airspace has been opened to commercial flights over previous holidays, but provided only minor relief from congestion.
"We've used military air lanes out East and even over Cleveland to reroute planes around bad weather," said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.
Solutions distant
"It should improve efficiency across the airspace system, even though the changes are only out East. But bear in mind any advantage could be wiped out over the busy Thanksgiving travel period if we have weather delays," Cory said.
FAA officials acknowledged that the real solutions to congestion at airports and in the skies are still years away, when air-traffic control transitions from the existing ground-based radars to a satellite system that helps pilots circumvent congestion and choose the most direct routes.
But the administration and Congress are deadlocked over how much to invest in modernizing the nation's aviation system and how to split the bill between government and the private sector.
Despite massive travel snafus earlier this year, Dave Barger, chief executive of JetBlue Airways, assured the House aviation subcommittee Thursday, "Our reservations and airport staffing levels are higher than they've ever been. We do have a good-news story as we prepare for the peak holiday period."
Many of the ideas that the White House mentioned Thursday to ease aviation congestion and delays "come right out of our bill," Rep. Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, said in reference to the FAA Modernization Act of 2007.
"Today's announcement by the president is better late than never," Costello said.
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mdsilva@tribune.com
jhilkevitch@tribune.com
IN THE WEB EDITION: Watch President Bush's announcement of an airline "express lane" and check the status of flights with Flight Tracker at chicagotbiune.com/commute
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-airline16nov16,0,5974197,full.story
P.S. My question is: Are these 'military air lanes', not the same ones that were vacated or ignored on 9/11/2007, when at least 4 planes deviated off their itineraries and caused a major catastrophe?... Blogmaster.
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