Unused military airspace from Florida to Maine will be opened to commercial flights, a measure long sought by airlines for increasing capacity, as part of last week’s White House announcement aimed at reducing holiday delays. The new airspace was dubbed the Holiday Express Lane and becomes effective Wednesday, November 21, through Sunday, November 25 and then resumes again during the Christmas holiday. The plan, announced by President George W. Bush in his second involvement in aviation matters since September, is aimed at avoiding a repeat of last year’s holiday travel disasters. Now, if the weather will only cooperate, since last year’s delays were largely weather related.
In addition, the announcement included new rule-making proposals to increase passenger rights and protections that resulted from a request for comments issued by DOT months ago to gauge the necessity of increasing penalties such as those for bumping passengers. Related Story
Perhaps the most interesting proposal is a new rule that would define any flight that is late in departing or arriving more than 70 percent of the time as an unfair and deceptive practice which would mean the imposition of penalties on airlines. That would include many regional flights, which are usually in the list of top five consistently delayed flights. Related Story  It might also finally resolve the issue of exactly which airline caused the delay – the mainline or the regional. For example, United automatically imposes delays on regional flights in an effort to inconvenience the least number of passengers. Related Story  Regionals and majors will have to renegotiate their contracts to account for such penalties when flights delays are imposed by the majors.
The efforts to increase capacity and reduce delays were hailed by industry. However, airlines, including Air Transportation Association, have almost universally condemned a government-mandated passenger bill of rights. Even so, both Delta and US Airways have issued new consumer policies recently aimed at achieving the same thing. However, airlines developed voluntary consumer friendly policies in the late 1990s which were abandoned in the post-911 period, reinforcing passengers groups’ efforts at gaining government-mandated rules.
“Airlines have committed to increased staffing to expedite check-in and boarding, to set aside extra seats and even extra planes, to help accommodate passengers affected by cancellations and delays,” said President Bush in making the announcement of government initiatives. “They agreed to bring in additional ticket kiosks and baggage handling gear, as well as rolling staircases.”
FAA has also developed programs to increase throughput. “The FAA is taking new measures to head off delays,” said Bush. “Bobby Sturgell will impose a holiday moratorium on all non-essential projects, so that the FAA can focus its personnel and equipment exclusively on keeping flights on time. The FAA is also partnering with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reduce bottlenecks in the New York metro area, which is the source of most chronic delays.” The moratorium includes nonessential maintenance as well.
In addition, the White House again pushed congestion or peak pricing, another measure industry has roundly condemned saying it would do nothing except increase costs. “To solve delay problems in the long term, Congress must pass legislation modernizing our aviation system,” it said, using the opportunity to launch a dig at Congress. “In February, the administration sent Congress a practical, comprehensive plan to modernize our air traffic control system…which overhauls the FAA's financing structure to provide price incentives for system users to reduce delays and facilitate technological modernization. It contains provisions to specifically target the most congested regions with market-based mechanisms such as congestion pricing and auctions to reduce airport delays and crowded airspace.” However, the White House-backed bill imposes a $25 user fee which has been vociferously fought by business and general aviation because it brings in less money than current taxes. They also charge it is inherently unfair since the aviation system is built for maximum throughput -- i.e. airlines -- rather than general aviation. Related Story
The key to solving this problem is managing the demand for flights at overloaded airports,” said the White House announcement. “Market-based mechanisms can encourage airlines to spread out their flights more evenly during the day, make better use of neighboring airports, and move the maximum number of passengers on each flight. Market-based mechanisms like ‘congestion pricing’ are widely accepted and critical to the functioning of many other areas of our economy. Phone and electricity companies balance supply and demand by adjusting their rates during peak usage hours. Airlines themselves smooth out peaks and valleys in demand by varying the prices of their tickets by time of day and week. Applying congestion pricing to airport usage has the potential to make today's broken system more predictable, more reliable, and more convenient for travelers.”
Airlines indicated, however, they are scheduling to passenger demand and congestion pricing would not reduce congestion. The proposals may also reintroduce slot auctions, which did little to reduce delays and congestion when they were first introduced in the wake of the air traffic control strike in the 1980s.
“The federal government is using the Internet to provide real-time updates on flight delays. People in America have got to know there's a website called Fly.FAA.Gov,” said Bush. “That's where the FAA transmits information on airport backups directly to passengers and their families.” FAA has also developed an email and wireless service to alert passengers of airport delays. Passengers can now sign up on the FAA web site to receive the alerts at www.faa.gov/wireless/.
Effective immediately, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said, the Department of Defense and the FAA will collaborate to open military airspace to commercial flights, and make a series of operational adjustments - such as new procedures that will increase the number of planes that can land at the JFK and Newark airports in bad weather and implementing a moratorium on non-essential air traffic control maintenance and operations - to keep the air travel system running at full capacity. Airlines must have their New York area plans to reduce congestion next summer into DOT by December 10. The policy changes, announced last week at the White House, will increase airspace and airport efficiency and help reduce delays caused by weather and holiday congestion, said Peters. FAA will also be using technology to fill unused airspace both in the air and on the ground through the use of more precise routings, according to the agency.
“We are determined not to let airline delays turn holiday cheer into runway gloom,” Secretary Peters said. “These new steps will help provide travelers relief from hold-ups and delays.”
The department’s passenger rights proposal includes requirements for airlines to create legally binding contingency plans for extended tarmac delays, respond to all consumer complaints within 30 days, publish complaint information online, and provide on-time performance information for their international flights in addition to their domestic flights to be used in the DOT’s Air Travel Consumer Report, published each month. However, it fell short of proposals for on-time performance to be posted on airline web sites by flight as sought by passenger rights groups. The aim is to have new airline consumer policies in place by the next winter season.
Secretary Peters also announced that the department would require airlines to include all cancelled flights and tarmac delays in their monthly delay reports, something they aren’t currently required to do. DOT is also issuing a second notice of proposed rulemaking to increase the required financial compensation for passengers involuntarily “bumped” from their flights, a move that would effectively double the compensation.
“We're proposing to double the amount of compensation passengers receive when they're forced off over-booked flights,” continued Bush. “For example, a passenger forced to wait more than two hours for another flight would receive a minimum of $800 under our idea – instead of the current $400. We want people who are responsible for moving passengers to understand that there will be consequences for these delays – all aiming to get the system to work better.”