After some fierce attacks by several top airline officials on the Federal Aviation Administration's running of the US air traffic control system, airline and FAA representatives have agreed to try to work together to come up with solutions to ease accelerating flight delays.
The game plan was the result of a two-day meeting of airline representatives and top FAA officials, including Administrator Jane Garvey and Associate Administrator for Air Traffic Services Monte Belger. The meeting, which took place in early August at the FAA's Air Traffic Control (ATC) System Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, resulted in the creation of several joint working groups to work on immediate and long-term ideas to help make the ATC system more efficient.
Within a week, Garvey said the agency would take some practical steps which would have an immediate impact on the situation. These include shifting more decision-making authority from local ATC centres to the Command Center in an effort to improve co-ordination of the nationwide ATC system, especially when severe weather strikes part of the country; placing limits on the use of special restrictions that lengthen separation between aircraft in bad weather; and reviewing and changing the conditions under which the FAA decides to hold aircraft on the ground in response to weather problems elsewhere in the country.
This industry get-together came within weeks of a blistering attack on the ATC system by Gordon Bethune, Continental Airlines chairman and chief executive. In a speech to the Aero Club in Washington, he called for refunds of billions of dollars of ATC fees and airline and passenger taxes from the federal government unless the money is used to fund what he called critical ATC systems.
"I am here to tell you that gridlock is not a problem for the future, it is happening now - today," Bethune complained, citing delays averaging as many as 82min on some days for flights at Continental's New York Newark hub.
Although there is evidence that air fares, monopoly ground services, long lines, cramped seating and lack of food are contributing to some consumer dissatisfaction with the airlines, Bethune said that ATC delays are the "main cause". In part, he blamed Congress for spending time on drafting passenger "bill of rights" legislation and for jurisdictional disputes that prevent funds collected for ATC spending from being used.
Bethune's assault followed other vociferous complaints about ATC from American Airlines and United Airlines.
"The airlines are extremely concerned about the delays for the first seven months of this year," says Jack Ryan, vice-president of air traffic management for the Air Transport Association, the club of US major couriers. Ryan says recorded delays in May, June and July were the highest of any three-month period in the past five years. "The FAA is also concerned about the delays, and they're trying to work cooperatively with us to seek some solutions."
FAA statistics show substantial increases in ATC delays in April and May, the last figures it has released. Compared with 1998, total delays - of 15min or more - were up 51% in April and 37% in May, with adverse weather conditions accounting for around a fifth of all delays. Adding significantly to overall delays this year is the continuing phase-in of new controller work stations at ATC centres, a process that will be completed by next June.
However, airline sources say it is the process by which air traffic is metered, especially during severe weather in spring and summer months, that is at the heart of the problem. The FAA needs to examine its method of assessing and forecasting convective weather activity and then the subsequent plans to try to avoid it, according to one airline.
At the meeting, airlines complained that the agency takes too long to decide alternative air routes in response to forecasted severe weather activity. The FAA sometimes unnecessarily delays aircraft on the ground and appears to lack the appropriate flexibility to alter flow patterns when weather conditions change. "We're looking for quicker ways to arrive at these solutions," said one airline.
One example given at the meeting involved a long line of solid thunderstorms expected across half the country one afternoon, so planning of alternative routes started early in the morning. But when the thunderstorm did not develop as expected, leaving large holes through which many flights could have proceeded, the FAA did not move in a timely way to alter the plans it had set in motion, leaving many passenger-filled aircraft sitting on the ground up to four hours.
Although the FAA has begun to make some changes, the working groups will focus first on solutions to problems that might be implemented almost immediately and then on longer-term solutions "so we don't repeat this summer next year," one participant said.
| Cause of delays at US airports 1998 | |||||
| Delays Number | Delays per 100,000 ATMs | Proportion of total delays | |||
| Cause | 1998 | Change | 1998 | Change | |
| Weather | 200,032 | 37% | 1,440 | 26% | 75% |
| Volume | 40,849 | -18% | 294 | -23% | 15% |
| Other | 14,151 | 98% | 102 | 49% | 5% |
| Runway | 7,718 | 11% | 56 | 9% | 3% |
| Equipment | 4,612 | 1% | 33 | 0% | 2% |
| Total | 267,362 | 25% | 53,550 | 29% | 100% |
Source: Based on data from Air Traffic Operations Managements System - OPSNET for 30 selected airports. ATM=air traffic movement.
Source: Airline Business
