Saying he is in favor of an industry-wide agreement to cut schedules to relieve congestion, Northwest Airlines CEO Douglas Steenland told USA Today said the ultimate result would be higher fares. He was responding to Former FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, whose parting shot was a call for reduced schedules. Indeed, after joining in lock step with the Air Transport Association in favoring changes in the funding formula for her agency, Blakey, said airlines, not the business jets the airlines are blaming, are responsible for congestion. The reversal comes on the cusp of Congressional consideration of the FAA reauthorization legislation including the new funding plan which increases fees and taxes for business aviation. The funding scheme was passed by the Senate but rejected in the House.
Blakey cited government data as proof that weather and airline scheduling are the major causes of delays, according to the Washington Post in a recent editorial. "No, you can't control Mother Nature," said Blakey. "But airlines can control their own schedules."
The paper also quoted AOPA President Phil Boyer. “It's great to see the administrator sharing these facts," he said. Related Story
The story also quoted Representative Jerry Costello (D-Ill.), chair of the House Aviation Subcommittee, who said while her admission is better late than never, he added, “I wish Administrator Blakey would have made these remarks in January, when they might have had some effect on the summer travel season. As she also noted, the FAA has all the authority it needs to take action in regard to scheduling and delays, as it has done in the past. I have been making similar points all year.”
The admission also flies in the face of the hundreds of editorials orchestrated by the Air Transport Association blaming business aviation for not paying their fair share when it is a system run for the greatest throughput – namely passenger airlines.
USA Today supported JetBlue’s call for an FAA-organized airline scheduling meeting. The airline called for such a meeting in June, asking the Department of Transportation to create a working group on ways FAA could reduce congestion in the Northeast. The FAA already imposed restrictions at O’Hare, many of which were aimed at regional jets, which reduced delays by 24.5 percent in 2005. The restrictions have been extended twice.
The question then becomes which flights would be cut. The regional industry should be worried, should the airlines be given antitrust immunity to pursue such schedule changes, that mainline carriers would accede to FAA calls to reduce the number of regional jets by using larger aircraft. Continental just announced it is moving regional jets out of Newark, where the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would have them restricted. Related Story
Capacity has already been cut to the point where load factors are the highest in history. In addition, mainline carriers are already opting for larger regional jets to replace the hundreds of 50 seat jets on the market but that change will take time. Growth has already slowed significantly for regionals this year.
"If we do nothing, the problem will simply continue to compound," Steenland told the newspaper’s Dan Reed. The statement was in response to last week’s call by outgoing FAA Administrator Marion Blakey that if the airlines did nothing the government would step in. Related Story
Steenland said an agreement to cut schedules at critical times at congested airports would "recognize the reality that some of our airports have reached their capacities,” he told Reed. “We're not likely to see a lot more runway space or terminal space at a lot of these airports, so congestion is going to be a long-term issue for this country.”