As the lone regional airline representative on the Aviation Rulemaking Committee on delay reductions, Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen said he has grown hoarse in fighting back any suggestion that would hurt regionals. These suggestions have included peak pricing and auctions, to redistributing the capacity around the New York region. This gives new meaning to Cohen’s statement two weeks ago that mainline carriers have thrown their regional partners under a bus and suggests the rest of the committee sees limiting regional jets as an easy solution. It also gives new urgency to Pinnacle Chair Phil Trenary’s observation that RJ scheduling is not the problem so much as scheduling 50 flights a day to every Florida point. Related Story
Still, Cohen did his level best last week to act the diplomat about the ARC proceedings and not reveal what it is, exactly that he is responding to. He indicated discussions were more conceptual rather than specific, acting as a sounding board before DOT makes its recommendations. “By definition, auctions and peak pricings would squeeze us out of the service we provide,” he told Regional Aviation News. “Phil’s point is well taken. At this point the government is saying that 20 flights to Florida is more important than one flight to Albany.”
With 40 some members on the ARC panel, he represents the lone voice in the wilderness on fighting anti-RJ attacks but his responses have included some masterful logic. Blaming regional jets for congestion is an urban legend said Cohen in testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee recently.
“Instead of demonizing RJs, historians will likely look back at the regional jet as the transformational jet of this generation,” said Cohen. He noted regional flights accounted for less than five percent of the 1,041 daily flights at Kennedy. “Regional aircraft today represent just about half of the daily schedule. [During] the evening rush hour aircraft of less than 70 seats represent only 25 percent of the departures, so there are fewer RJs during JFK’s busiest period than at other time of the day.
“While the number of passengers flying on regionals increased by about 2.5 percent, in 2006, the number of regional flights actually declined three percent year over year, from 5.13 to 4.98 million,” Cohen continued. “Last year, the total hours flown by regional airlines fell by about three percent, in other words, regionals reduced their usage of the ATC and airport system year over year. Most notably, the ‘upgauging’ of the regional fleet has been occurring without any forced schemes or bureaucratic board games. In the post 9-11 period, average seating capacity of the regional fleet has grown by about a third, from 35 to more than 50 seats per aircraft today.”
Despite this defense, Wall Street Journal Reporter Scott McCartney noted that many of these planes are serving markets that could sustain larger equipment. He pointed out in a recent Middle Seat column, although RJs are the only profitable way to serve some communities, they also serve Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, Atlanta, Toronto and Montreal, some of which could be consolidated into larger equipment.
Now, Bloomberg is reporting that the Department of Transportation will impose an auction system to cut delays at New York area airports, which would supposedly give airlines a financial incentive to cut aircraft movements and schedule during off-peak hours.
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters was set to report the department’s plans to stem congestion and delays on Monday although calls to DOT yielded little in the way of concrete information on what the department plans.
Bloomberg quoted DOT General Counsel DJ Gribbin as say airlines would bid on takeoff and landing slots at all three New York airports in one option under consideration. DOT wants airlines to consolidate flights and shift them to off-peak hours. While auctions are definitely on the table so is just about everything else, most of which would have a negative impact on regionals.
On the other hand, perhaps DOT could take a lesson from the Brazilian government which has an equal, or worse, problem with air traffic control. The government has ordered airlines to compensate passengers for delays that exceed 30 minutes. The new system, which the president wants ready in time for Christmas, would pay passengers more the longer the delay lasts.
The plan, part of a package to end the chaos that is the ATC system in the country, calls for passengers to get five percent of the ticket price for delays up to an hour and as much as 50 percent for five-plus-hour delays. Landing fees at Sao Paulo’s two airports will also be raised in an effort to offload traffic from the country’s two busiest airports.
In the meantime, use of military airspace over Thanksgiving, scheduled to be repeated for Christmas, is now seen as part of a more permanent solution, according to Scott McCartney’s recent Middle Seat column. He reported that is was responsible for reducing flight times – which, of course, means fewer emissions – if industry could just get what it has long wanted – permanent access to the normally off-limits airspace off the East Coast.
“The Federal Aviation Administration says use of the new routes built over the long holiday weekend, increased 10 to 15 flights an hour on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the busiest travel day of the year,” wrote McCartney, who quoted FAA Director of System Operations Mike Sammartino as saying, "The overall initiative was very successful."
While smooth over the Thanksgiving holiday, flight delays resumed their usual chaos as soon as the military took back the two routes, said McCartney. He quoted Defense’s Executive Director of the policy board on federal aviation as saying the two routes added 40 percent more capacity that airlines could plan on.
He also reported that military training flights, which usually take up the East Coast oceanic airspace and is heavily used, could be scheduled outside of airline peak hours or further out to sea in order to accommodate the two eight-mile-wide lanes. The FAA is in talks with the Defense Department to gain more use of it, especially, as the airlines want, in unusual weather and heavy traffic. In addition to training and missile tests, it is also used for other readiness activities. Consequently, the military is loathe to give up the airspace.