American Airlines is conducting a co-ordinated lobbying campaign to accelerate progress towards US free-flight, based on computer modelling which predicts that the region's hub-and-spoke system will seize up by 2014 if nothing is done.
Over the past year, the airline has begun applying pressure at political and technical levels, says Capt Russ Chew, American's manager of strategic operations and technology, who is widely credited with building the free-flight business case which attracted the attention of AMR group chairman Bob Crandall.
The case is based on a computer model which suggests that by 2014, under current airspace-management techniques and with only 2.3%annual passenger growth, there will be an average delay of more than 4min for every aircraft across the system, with the worst delays at 103min.
Chew says that this is a system average based on good weather conditions, while at busy airports the delays are expected to be two to three times greater. He warns that, at this point, a conventional hub network to become inoperable.
Source: Flight International
