The New York Times
July 26, 2001

As Flight Delays Ease Off, New-Runway Push Begins
By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON, July 25 - New government figures show that flight delays eased
markedly in the second quarter of this year, but the airlines and air
traffic controllers, describing passengers as still unhappy, will open a
campaign on Thursday to build public support for new runways and other
improvements.

The new data, from the Federal Aviation Administration, show delays down in
April and June and up only slightly in May, compared with performance in the
corresponding months of last year. The drop for the three months together
was nearly 10 percent.

Flight cancellations, lost baggage and passenger complaints were also down.
Airlines say that they lose fewer bags, especially for connecting
passengers, when planes are on time, and that passengers are less prone to
complain about anything if their flight lands when it is scheduled to.

But industry experts say the public remains dissatisfied, still acutely
conscious of delays. And the Air Transport Association, the trade group for
the major airlines, is trying to shift attention away from calls for
Congress to enact a "passenger bill of rights," and toward creating a
national consensus for new runway construction. The airlines see that step
as crucial to improving their on- time records in the years ahead, as air
traffic continues to grow.

The airlines and the controllers' union, the National Air Traffic
Controllers Association, are drafting a letter to President Bush seeking a
strong statement from him that building new runways is a national priority.
John M. Meenan, vice president of the Air Transport Association, said the
airlines would like Congress to create incentives for local and state
governments, where authority for runway construction typically rests, to pay
attention to the needs of the carriers and their passengers. One method, Mr.
Meenan said, would be to threaten loss of federal highway funds for cities
that will not build new runways that Washington thinks are needed.

The controllers' union and the Air Transport Association will sponsor what
they call a "summit meeting" here on Thursday that will include an unusually
broad group, including the biggest union of airline pilots and organizations
representing airports, regional airlines, cargo airlines, owners of private
and business airplanes, and aerospace manufacturers. The F.A.A.
administrator, Jane F. Garvey, will give a speech praising the cooperation
that has helped reduce delays this year, a spokesman for the agency said.

The airlines and the controllers say such cooperation, which now includes
conference calls every hour among the airlines and air traffic control
headquarters, has played a role in easing delays, as have air traffic
equipment that breaks down less often and some improvements in air traffic
software.

Weather has helped, too, with thunderstorms less a factor. As Ms. Garvey put
it in remarks prepared for delivery on Thursday, "Mother Nature is better
behaved this year."

But "weather is not the be-all and end-all of the story," Carol Hallett,
president of the Air Transport Association, said in an interview, praising
what she described as "fine-tuning" of a system of cooperation that began in
the spring of 2000.

Still, Ms. Hallett and the president of the controllers' union, John Carr,
said cooperation and new air traffic software would take them only so far.
They said software improvements now being adopted or in development, some
still years from being put in effect, would expand the system's capacity to
handle passenger planes by no more than 11 percent.

The industry's focus contrasts with the position taken last week by the
chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on
Aviation, Representative John L. Mica, Republican of Florida. Mr. Mica said
that severe air traffic delays at La Guardia Airport in New York had been
largely solved by limiting the number of flights allowed there and that the
same step should be taken at other airports where schedules exceed the
capacity estimated by the F.A.A.

One goal in the industry's campaign is faster environmental review, whether
state or federal, of proposed runway construction.

"We were able to get a man on the moon in eight years," Ms. Hallett said.
"We're unable to get any runway built in eight years."

The airlines are particularly eager for additional runways at O'Hare in
Chicago, Logan in Boston and San Francisco International. New construction
at all face strong local opposition.

The new flight-delay data from the F.A.A. measures the timeliness of
"operations," which, for each flight, include not only the takeoff and the
landing but also occurrences like one traffic control center's handing the
flight off to another.

The data showed that two major airports in the New York area experienced
improvements in the first half of the year. Delays of 15 minutes or more
were down 22 percent at Newark International Airport, despite an increase of
3.5 percent in landings and takeoffs, and down 43 percent at Kennedy
International Airport, despite a 3.6 percent increase.

At La Guardia, flight delays in the first half were up nearly 42 percent
compared with the first half of 2000. But that was an improvement from last
fall, when a lifting of controls on landing and takeoff schedules brought a
flood of traffic and near gridlock. Those controls were reinstituted this
year.


Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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