Clearing the Air — More Air Lanes Open to Ease Holiday Flights

By Jane Roberts

The short-term measures announced by President Bush to ease air congestion over the Thanksgiving holiday may be the largest White House intervention in aviation since President Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

He opened up military airspace to civilian flights on the East Coast, starting next Wednesday afternoon and ending early Nov. 26.

He also suspended nonessential maintenance requirements and proposed doubling the penalties airlines must pay for bumping passengers to as high as $800.

The most significant, analysts say, is allowing commercial carriers access to high-altitude military space.

“It won’t totally solve the problem, but it’s better than nothing,” said Terry Trippler at tripplertraveler.com.

While the Department of Defense makes military space available for short periods of time, this is the first time it has agreed in advance to open space on this scale, said Kathleen Bergen, FAA spokeswoman.

“The Navy will continue to control airspace off the East Coast below 23,000 feet for training operations,” she said. “Under this ‘common sense’ approach, the Department of Defense will release airspace above 24,000 feet.”

The move creates two extra routes from Maine to Florida, alleviating some ground congestion by helping planes get off on time.

“You sit on the tarmac because you can’t get clearance to take off,” Trippler said. “The reason is, there’s no room on the ground at your destination.

“The problem is really on the ground but it’s caused by too many planes in the air.”

Thanksgiving will be the biggest test for an aviation system that reported record numbers of delays this summer.

The nation’s carriers are expected to fly about 27 million passengers worldwide over the next 11 days, beginning today, up 4 percent over last year, according to the Air Transport Association, a trade group that represents most carriers.

In Memphis, the push will be start Sunday and run eight days, said Don Barker, federal security director in charge of the airport security.

“In addition to the 15 people we’ve hired in the last 45 days, we’re probably going to put on about 1,200 to 1,300 hours of additional labor to cover the push,” Barker said.

Alleviating bottlenecks in the East makes the whole system flow better, said Vicki Rush, chief executive officer at A & I Travel.

“No one is immune. It all goes back to full planes,” Rush said. “Airlines can absorb a lot of problems and issues if they have extra planes sitting around and staff to fly them.

“But everything is at capacity, including the number of pilots, the number of planes and the seats on the planes.”

She advises travelers to book the earliest flights in the day or leave a day early for events that can’t be rescheduled.

Delays in New York airports account for about 75 percent of the airplane delays across the nation, said Jim Burnley, secretary of Transportation under Reagan.

“This is a novel and unprecedented step,” he said. “This is the deepest that any president has delved into aviation issues since Reagan had to face down the air traffic controllers’ union in 1981.”

More than 26 years later, air traffic controllers are retiring in record numbers.

They say the problem is not too many planes but too few controllers.

“This will have no real effect whatsoever,” said Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers union, which is at odds with the FAA after it imposed a contract on the controllers last fall. “This is because there are 7.5 percent fewer veteran, fully trained air traffic controllers on staff at FAA air traffic facilities nationwide this holiday season than in 2006, handling 4 percent more traffic.

“If anything, delays will increase this holiday season, not decrease.”

Controllers and analysts expect little to change until a GPS- based air traffic system is put in place.

“Our cell phones have GPS. We have OnStar in our cars, which is GPS, why not put it in our airplanes,” Trippler said.

The improvement is outlined in the FAA reauthorization bill, which has been extended into December.

– Jane Roberts: 529-2512

Originally published by Jane Roberts / robertsj@commercialappeal.com .

(c) 2007 Commercial Appeal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.