Wednesday April 25, 11:07 am Eastern Time
Press Release

Runway Coalition Says FAA Capacity Study Underscores the Need for Runways
and Airport Infrastructure

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2001--The leaders of a coalition of
airport and airline representatives who have joined together to support the
construction of needed runways at many of the nation's major airports
offered encouraging words after the release of a Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) study on airport capacity.

``The FAA's capacity benchmarking study thoroughly examined all aspects of
aviation infrastructure, and the critical need for runways is a theme that
runs throughout the report,'' said Virginia Buckingham, the executive
director and chief executive officer for the Massachusetts Port Authority
and co-chair of Runways: A National Coalition. ``Gridlock threatens to
undermine the billions of dollars of investment that have been made at many
of our most important airports unless nationwide capacity is expanded to
handle the growing demand for air transportation. The runway construction
projects being proposed are needed to relieve congestion that already exists
and ease the delays that are choking the system and frustrating
passengers.''

``The public's current unhappiness with the state of air travel is in large
part, the result of our aviation infrastructure not being able to meet the
demand. The aviation community remains focused on strategically adding
runways at some of our nation's busiest airports and major hubs in order to
handle the proven demand that already exists,'' said Gina Marie Lindsey, the
coalition's other co-chair and the managing director of the Seattle-Tacoma
International Airport. ``Delays are taking a toll in terms of economic costs
to airlines and consumers, and environmental costs to communities as
aircraft needlessly taxi on the ground or circle an airport and automobile
drivers wait to pick up passengers or crawl through crowded parking lots
looking for a space.''

Runways: A National Coalition has brought together aviation interests to ask
Congress and the Administration to streamline the runway approval process.
The coalition is not seeking to change existing environmental laws, but
rather, a better-coordinated review process.

The current environmental approval process involves duplicate reviews by
state, federal and local governments, with open deadlines for completion and
multiple opportunities for challenges and appeals. The result is often a
process that can stretch up to ten years before construction can even begin.

In the last decade, only six new runways have been built at U.S. airports
while passenger enplanements have increased more than 40 percent during that
same period.

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Contact:

Runway Coalition
Todd Hauptli, 703/824-0500
or
Asheley Galloway, 202/530-4688
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