Abrupt Aircraft Grounding Relief

Air carriers, aircraft manufacturers and the FAA should review current procedures to avoid the kind of massive abrupt flight cancellations that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded last month, says U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters. Citing lessons learned from reports submitted by the FAA and American Airlines in response to last month’s grounding of hundreds of MD-80 aircraft, Peters called on the FAA and the airlines to better ensure mutual understanding of what constitutes compliance with an airworthiness directive. Peters also announced three new measures designed to address severe delays at the three major New York area airports. DOT is proposing new measures to make available a limited number of takeoff and landing slots for auction at JFK and Newark Airports.