Travel News - Airliner 'Express Lanes' OK'd for Thanksgiving

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111500913.html?hpid=topnews
Holiday 'Express Lane' OK'd for Flyers
By TERENCE HUNT, The Associated Press
Thursday, November 15, 2007; 2:21 PM

WASHINGTON -- Ahead of the holiday travel crunch, President Bush ordered steps Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded. The most significant change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create "a Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airliners. ...

[Also] the Federal Aviation Administration was imposing a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance projects ... Further, the Department of Transportation will propose doubling the bump fee that airlines must pay to travelers who buy tickets but wind up without a seat. ... Another proposed rule would deem the operation of a chronically delayed flight _ defined as a flight that operates more than 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time _ to be an "unfair and deceptive practice." That designation carries with it substantial monetary penalties.

"Another proposed rule would deem the operation of a chronically delayed flight _ defined as a flight that operates more than 15 minutes late more than 70 percent of the time _ to be an "unfair and deceptive practice." That designation carries with it substantial monetary penalties."I'd be curious to see how this turns out. Would not those penalties only find their way back to the airline through an increase in the ticket price of those, and possible other, flights?

Will the administration open up new "express runways" to go with all those new "express air lanes?" Didn't think so.

Too bad that there are 1000 fewer air traffic controllers in the U.S. than last Thanksgiving. Pray for perfect weather.

Why not keep the "express air lanes" open year round?

Will the administration open up new "express runways" to go with all those new "express air lanes?" Didn't think so.

"More jets landing at Newark and JFK will be allowed to use certain runways simultaneously, with the aim of increasing the airports' capacity."

"More jets landing at Newark and JFK will be allowed to use certain runways simultaneously, with the aim of increasing the airports' capacity."

This could get real interesting with all the foreign carriers going to those airports and the crews' limited English capabilities. I hope that they thoroughly understand the "land and hold short" (of the other runways) instructions. And that the brakes will do the job.

Decreasing the level of safety for the sake of reducing delays does not make me a happy pax.

Hopefully the new rules for the increased bump fee's will include to RJ flights.

Currently if you get an IDB from a small RJ like the CRJ-200 or ERJ, you are not entitled to cash compensation.

This needs to change as there are too many RJ's operating these days.

Some airports that used to be predominately mainline are now big RJ stations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/15/AR2007111500913.html?hpid=topnews

As we used to say in high school Big Whoop.
This is Bush grandstanding to look like he's doing something to help travelers. Reality - this won't address the real problems like an overtaxed FAA, overused runways (in part due to way to many RJ's), and the inevitable crunch that takes place during the holidays. It's also only the eastern seaboard airspace which will be effected. Also another way to distract from how much more screwed up everything will be due to TSO's now checking boarding passes, clogging up the lanes requiring all electronics out of bags etc etc etc.......
Wave some flags and have a little press conference over here.... distract from all the garbage over there... Same old Same old.

The "express lanes" shown in the news were from Florida up/down the East Coast. How does this help people flying from the west, midwest, northwest, etc. Much ado about nothing and still not too helpfull if there is bad weather and ATC delays.

The problem is a lack of runways, not a lack of airspace. The solution is market based and quite simple.

Each airport has a quantifiable limit to the number of operations that their runways can handle. i.e. each runway can generally handle one arrival, or one departure, per minute unless that is restricted by it's close proximity to, or intersection with, other runways. Establish slot limits for each airport based on the airport's capacity and award them to the airlines which are willing to pay the highest landing/departure fees for each slot. Re-bid the slots periodically (every quarter?) so that an airline can't sit on an unproductive slot to prevent it from going to the competition. Slots during the busiest times would be the most expensive which would be an incentive for the airlines to use those slots for their bigger airplanes. Slots during the slow periods would be the cheapest which would be an incentive for airlines to move flights to these less congested times. Slots at nearby airports (i.e. SWF instead JFK/LGA/EWR) will be cheaper which will be an incentive for airlines to use these alternate airports to a greater degree.

You'll still have problems when weather conditions reduces the airport capacity below normal but it won't be nearly as bad as when bad weather hits today.

Airports with severe capacity shortages relative to demand will generate very large usage fees which will help fund airport expansion and infrastructure improvement to better handle the demand. Tickets to/from the heavily congested airports will tend to be more expensive which will drive down the demand and push the more flexible travelers to the cheaper, and less congested, alternate airports.

The "express lanes" shown in the news were from Florida up/down the East Coast. How does this help people flying from the west, midwest, northwest, etc.

Airplanes tend to fly all over the place during the day, and over subsequent days. Your DFW-LAX flight might be on an aircraft that flew up and down the east coast yesterday, and to DFW late last night. Had it been stuck during the day, you may not have an aircraft this morning.

In any event, I would rather see them take incremental steps to improve parts of the system over saying "this doesn't fix the entire problem, for everyone, instantly, so let's not do it".

You prefer sitting with the status quo until the Mother Of All ATC solutions is invented?

In any event, I would rather see them take incremental steps to improve parts of the system over saying "this doesn't fix the entire problem, for everyone, instantly, so let's not do it".

Is there any indication that these "Express Lanes" (MOAs?) will actually allow more flights to occur? I suspect this is pure grandstanding. Most military airspace has a ceiling that commercial aircraft easily overtop and MOAs are not hot 24x7.

I'd rather see a clear technical definition of the solution that is proposed before granting that the Bush administration has accomplished anything.

The "express lanes" shown in the news were from Florida up/down the East Coast. How does this help people flying from the west, midwest, northwest, etc. Much ado about nothing and still not too helpfull if there is bad weather and ATC delays.
The only semi-reasonable explanation I have seen is on today's story at cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/11/21/holiday.travel/index.html):

David Castelveter, spokesman for the Air Transport Association, the interest group representing major carriers in Washington, said the airspace will be available for planes flying between Florida and Maine.

The airspace could be especially helpful if the National Weather Service warnings hold true, Castelveter said.

"If we have weather coming in from the west, for example, it allows us to route planes to the east in order to get them on a good path," he said.

However the article contains this other bit:

New York is a particularly important holiday travel hub. Nearly one-third of all air traffic passes through the New York area, and three of four chronic delays around the country can be traced back to those in the Big Apple, according to a White House news release about the military airspace.I understand about delays at hubs rippling through the system, but 33% of all air traffic passing through the New York area? Is that all air traffic in the US? Northeast US? Internationally? Without a qualification, it seems to be a useless made up point.

Don't Chicago, Atlanta, etc have way more runways than JFK, EWR, LGA, etc?