While FAA has been trying to rid congested airports of regional jets, The Wall Street Journal and NBC Nightly News, spring-boarding off the WSJ report, joined the fray blaming delays on the plethora of regional jets, While FAA may want to blame regional jets, the action is more indicative of its failure to keep up with changes in the airline industry since the mid-1990s. This is just the latest in a long line of air traffic control crises dating back 40 years during which FAA failed to meet its promises to build a system that meets the needs of the aviation industry.
While restricting regional jets may be a short-term solution to a long-term problem, it fails to recognize the regional jet’s important role in helping in the recovery of airline industry in the post-9/11 period. It is a matter of economics as these jets afford more economical service for the financially beleaguered airline partners. Indeed, restricting regional jets fails to consider the needs of small- and medium-sized communities. It also reflects FAA’s failure to do what the airlines have done since 9/11, increase productivity and slash costs – more than just understaffing controller and inspector workforces.
Boyd Group President Michael Boyd pointed to small and mid-sized airports as the most immediate victims. “For example, we're already hearing the trendy, easy-solution refrains [to] cut out those little jets flying to those little places. They just gum up the hubs at key times... Better to take care of the big cities, where the real business demands are! The supposition that airlines should fly less and just use bigger airplanes on fewer flights, is amateur and inconsistent with realities of air travel demand. Aside from that being a cowardly surrender to the incompetence of the FAA, these kinds of armchair-expert ‘solutions’ are nothing more than accepting a future where America becomes even less globally-competitive.”
He noted communities are experiencing industrial growth which will be stunted with the restrictions currently being discussed. Related Story  He pointed to new Hyundai and Kia plants in Montgomery, Ala. As well as a new Euro/Russian steel mill in the Columbus/Golden Triangle region of Mississippi. In addition, truck manufacturers Kenworth and Peterbilt are building a new factory to produce Dutch designed engines that will generate 10,000 new origin-&-destination passengers. Finally, he pointed to Erie, Pa., which recently lost Delta service despite the fact it is the center of global locomotive technology that ships worldwide. “Today, small and mid-size communities are experiencing an influx of new industry, new high-paying jobs, and new, often international investment,” he said. “The economic resurgence at many small- and mid-size communities is a major factor in America remaining globally competitive. Without viable air service connectivity to the rest of the nation and the world, which is what the FAA's ATC bungling is threatening, this economic growth could be cut off at the knees.”
Wall Street Journal Reporter Scott McCartney blamed the plethora of regional jets for airport overcrowding in a story published August 13. He noted half of flights at LaGuardia’s and O’Hare were regional jets or turboprops, which also accounted for 40 percent of Kennedy and Newark traffic. The article re-ignites a debate spawned by efforts to stem delays at O’Hare and LaGuardia, at which FAA imposed limitations during the last Related Story www.aviationtoday.com/ran/categories/commercial/7641.html
However, McCartney was sensitive to these arguments. “Airlines like the economics of small planes,” he wrote. “For one thing, they're usually flown by lower-paid pilots and flight attendants from commuter subsidiaries or contractors. Smaller jets also let carriers bulk up their schedules without flying lots of empty seats. The combination of smaller jets and more numerous flights makes airlines' schedules more attractive to high-dollar business travelers.
Those regional jets – planes with fewer than 100 seats – don’t just flit to small towns. Airlines cram them into their big hubs, too. Delta Air Lines flies regional jets between Atlanta and both Chicago and New York. United Air Lines flies regional jets out of O'Hare to six cities – Atlanta, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, Montreal and Charlotte, N.C. – all in the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. rush. Three-quarters of the flights between LaGuardia and Toronto are on planes with fewer than 100 seats. The small-plane conundrum is, at least in part, a byproduct of the financial troubles of the airline industry. After Sept. 11, 2001, airlines grounded older, larger jets that were gas guzzlers. The big jets weren't needed when traffic dropped dramatically after the terrorist attacks. Airlines substituted small regional jets, subcontracting the flying.”
While the Regional Airline Association is developing an op-ed in response to the news coverage, President Roger Cohen noted that congestion problems at LaGuardia, Newark, O’Hare and Washington pre-date the regional jet. He also attacked those who would blame airline scheduling practices. “This is an effort to blame others for the failure of the nation to upgrade airport and airways infrastructure,” he said. “It’s time to stop looking for people to blame and start fixing the problem even if it means fixing it one delay at a time. It is our job to provide passengers with more options not fewer options.
“People seem to forget that the airlines are in the business to serve passengers when and where they want to go,” he continued. “It is not in the airline’s best interest to do otherwise. To blame airline scheduling is crazy. Airlines would schedule it if it didn’t work for the passenger. As for LaGuardia, you must remember that it is such cities as Columbus, Louisville, Dayton, Providence, Rochester and Syracuse that are served into LaGuardia using regional jets. If you take the argument to the extreme what people are talking about it service these points with one big aircraft a day. The last time a government made a decision like that it was called Aeroflot.”
He echoed comments by RJ Defense Coalition responding to restrictions placed on O’Hare and LGA in the last year. "The [restrictions] erroneously attributes the majority of LGA's air traffic problems on the small jet," it said. "The point is that the air traffic control system and airport facilities have always been challenged by changes in aircraft technology and the airline marketplace. Fortunately, the FAA did not restrict the use of 'fast' jet airliners on the basis of ATC concerns in the 1960s, nor did it exclude the 'enormous' Boeing 747 on the basis of the existing airport infrastructure wouldn't accommodate it. Instead we found ways to accommodate change and the flying public is the beneficiary of the government's ability to adapt. The introduction and use of small jet airliners should receive no less consideration." The organization further stated the NPRM's lack of objective economic analysis will result in an "ill-conceived plan that will fail to reduce traffic delays at LGA."
McCartney, however, saw the reason for regional jets as he reported the numbers at New York’s airports. “U.S. airlines grounded a net 385 large planes from 2000 through 2006 – but they added 1,029 regional jets – says data firm Airline Monitor. As air-travel woes have spread, some aviation officials and regulators, including the head of the Federal Aviation Administration, have begun saying delays could be eased if airlines would consolidate some of their numerous flights on larger planes. Just two problems with that. One is that airlines like having more flights with smaller jets. The other is that passengers like it, too.” Passengers prefer frequency to larger jets, he reported. “With runway space this scarce, you might think that airlines would use big planes that can carry lots of people,” he wrote. “Instead, of 41 flights set to land at LaGuardia at 5 pm on a Wednesday, 21 involved small commuter aircraft. Five of them were propeller planes. Thirty-three arrived late, one by three hours.”
Even so, Continental Express Pinnacle Airlines (PNCL) is expanding capacity at Newark by using the Bombardier (BBD) Q400 which can land on a cross-wind runway. Both Pinnacle and its subsidiary, Colgan Air, are touting the ability of the Q400 as a capacity generator as they seek additional fee-for-service contracts. Meanwhile, Bombardier calls the aircraft a new road to “turboprofits.” Pinnacle told Regional Aviation News that the initial reaction of the Port of New York and New Jersey was extremely negative toward the return of turboprops to the system. However, in presenting its plans for Newark, the port authority soon saw the light. Once it found out it could use a cross-wind runway and would be able to stay out of the jet landing conga line, they became highly enthusiastic and wanted to know about applications at LaGuardia. Pinnacle points out that many airports are built near water and could use the capabilities of the Q400 to build capacity without adding any concrete.
McCartney reported that FAA’s proposals to force airlines to use larger aircraft are now in limbo after objections from the airline industry. “FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, questioning the use of many smaller planes and their more-numerous flights, says that ‘from the standpoint of passengers and from the standpoint of getting the best use out of high-priced real estate, this is not the way we should be going,” he wrote, adding FAA wanted average aircraft size to increase from the current 98 seats to between 104 and 120 seats which, said FAA would reduce delays at LaGuardia by 37 percent.
He also pointed to a study by Airline Monitor saying since 2002, domestic traffic by mainline airlines has increased 3.6 percent in terms of revenue-passenger miles, compared to an increase of 196 percent for regional partners. The average size of major airliners has dropped from 160 to 137 seats in the last decade, he said. , which is the number of miles that paying customers are flown, Airline Monitor says. “Meanwhile, flight delays have worsened every year since 2003, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics,” he wrote. “In the January-June period four years ago, just under 83 percent of flights arrived on time; in the comparable period this year, only 72.7 percent did.”
He also reported that airlines have increased flights at the nation’s most problematic airports – the New York airports. Related Story
The Port Authority, wrote McCartney, wants to change the gauge of aircraft and is studying writing gauge requirements into gate leases among other solutions. Related Story
He also quoted former AMR CEO Robert Crandall as favoring letting FAA go back to controlling slots. “Airport overcrowding is ‘fixable, but it's not fixable without major policy change,’ the former AMR Corp. CEO said at a recent conference. In addition, McCartney noted other proposals including demand pricing for landing fees instead of by weight but airlines object noting that at only two percent of total costs, raising fees wouldn’t make them change because they are responding to consumer demand. “Carriers say less use of small jets would make it harder for them to offer off-peak flights…and would reduce connection options,” said McCartney. “Carriers contend that without changing rules, the FAA could do a better job of moving traffic into and out of the Northeast. They note that JFK has four runways, but usually only two are used at once… A push this year to use three JFK runways at once has had mixed results.”