Fly the miserable skies
AFTER THE WORST six months of airline delays in history, travelers have a right to expect Washington to help reduce the congestion that can leave passengers sitting in stifling airplanes on the tarmac for hours. Letting the airlines book as many flights as they want into overcrowded airports is simply not working, especially when bad weather at hubs can cascade into nationwide backups. The Federal Aviation Administration should work with airlines to reduce peak-period use at all the bottleneck airports, either through peak-hour fees on flights or by auctioning off the rights to takeoffs and landings at rush hours. If the airlines balk, the agency should get power from Congress to mandate such measures.
Congress also has a crucial decision to make: how to fund the $15 billion to $25 billion cost of modernizing air traffic control with a shift from a radar system to a satellite-based one. While the improvement will not ease congestion for years, if then, one part of the FAA's funding plan - a new user fee for corporate jets and small private aircraft at the nation's busiest airports - could have an immediate payoff in delay reduction.
The agency's proposed fee would shift more of the cost of FAA operations from the airlines and their passengers to corporate aircraft, which are not carrying a fair load now. If stiff enough, the fees could encourage firms to fly their Gulfstreams into less-crowded airports.
The organization representing private-business aircraft wants Congress to have nothing to do with the FAA's proposal. But the agency has a strong argument on its side. It calculates that corporate jets and small, private aircraft are responsible for 16 percent of the FAA's air control costs but kick in just 3 percent of the funds needed for the system.
Logan, despite its new runway, ranked as the nation's seventh worst among 32 big airports for delays on arrivals for the first half of this year - with one of three planes arriving late. The record for departures was only marginally better, with 27 percent of flights leaving more than 15 minutes late.
Ripple-effect delays at Logan could decline if the FAA arranged for reduced scheduling at the big hub airports, but Massport officials should be ready to invoke the peak-period pricing system that it was required to prepare as a condition for building its new runway. Aviation officials repeatedly cite inclement weather as the main cause for delays, but the entire system could deal better with storms if it were not operating so close to capacity.
Air travel isn't a luxury but a necessary mode of transport for many Americans. Through June of this year, major airlines operated a record 3.7 million flights, up 31 percent from 2000. Total flights - and delays - will only increase if the FAA does not get serious about schedule reductions at the country's most overcrowded airports.
