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Bush tackles air traffic congestion
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 comparable data began being collected 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 — like doubling the penalties airlines have to pay passengers bumped from overbooked flights — won't take place until next summer at the earliest.
Bush acknowledged these short-term steps "do not cure the underlying problem: In certain parts of our country, the demand for air service exceeds the available supply. As a result, airlines are scheduling more arrivals and departures than airports can possibly handle."
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He called on Congress to pass his FAA reauthorization bill, which would finance a multibillion-dollar modernizing of air traffic control by replacing radars with global positioning satellites. The House has passed a reauthorization, but Bush objects to some provisions. The Senate has yet to act.
Among the short-term steps:
* The FAA is imposing a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance projects, so all its personnel and equipment will be focused on keeping flights on time.
* New runway use patterns have been instituted at New York's Kennedy International that allow four to six more planes to arrive each hour, and Newark is about to add new takeoff routes.
The Transportation Department proposed new rules to double the bump fee that airlines must pay to travelers with tickets but no seat from $200 for those delayed less than two hours and $400 for those who wait more than two hours to $400 and $800. It also proposed that airlines devise legally enforceable plans to provide food, water, lavatories and medical care to passengers stranded in planes on airport taxiways.
Long-term, Bush expressed support for so-called "congestion pricing" proposals that would charge airlines higher fees to take off and land at peak hours in overcrowded airports to encourage them to spread flights throughout the day
Transportation Secretary Peters acknowledged airlines would pass along to passengers some of the costs of the 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." She said her former private sector employer paid the extra cost of having employees travel a day early to be sure to be on time.
Associated Press writers Janet Frankston Loring in Newark, N.J., and Jim Abrams in Washington contributed to this story.
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