While regionals often take the brunt of criticism at congested airports, Congress is stalling airport construction with only a temporary passage of the Airport Improvement program. Meanwhile, if U.S. airlines and passengers think the threats to force on-time flights is bad here, they should try China as illustrated below..

RJs Not to Blame
Republic Holdings CEO Bryan Bedford weighed in on how restrictions and congestion pricing, proposed by the government would impact regionals, attacking critics who suggest the solution to congestion would be to simply up-gauge regional jets to larger equipment. “The problem is you just can’t fly bigger jets economically between Dayton, Ohio and New York,” he said, speaking before the Raymond James Aviation Conference last week. “You can’t fly them to Chattanooga or Louisville or Knoxville people don’t want to go to Orlando or South Florida 40 times a day from New York. There are a lot of cities who need access to New York and we are the only economical way to get them there.”
Bedford echoed arguments laid out by Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen who noted narrow-body aircraft were growing at a far higher pace than regional jets. Related Story
He also predicted the entire industry will push back on congestion pricing. “At the end of day congestion pricing won’t change the behavior of our partners except to just raise prices,” he said. “You’ll see industry fighting it and there will be tremendous push back on any form of demand management. What we want is capacity fixed and what the consumer wants is Congress to get off its butt and approve funding for the NextGen air traffic control system. All regional aircraft have advance satellite-based navigation systems and the ability to talk to each other rather than rely on line of sight and land-based radar. It’s time for the infrastructure to be corrected.”

Congressional Failure Jeopardizes Airports
With the suspension of the Airport Improvement Program in December, American Association of Airport Executives President Chip Barclay pushed for congressional action on pending FAA reauthorization legislation and warned that continued inaction on the measure threatens critical airport projects aimed at building much-needed capacity and improving safety on the nation’s runways.
“Air travelers across the country would be dismayed to know that a critical federal program aimed at enhancing airport capacity and safety is currently on hold thanks to an impasse in Congress on key FAA reauthorization legislation,” Barclay said. “A continued delay in releasing Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grants will have serious consequences on the ability of airports to meet their obligations in the short-term and to build projects that play a critical role in meeting long-term needs at their facilities.”
Congress approved more than $3.5 billion in funding for the federal Airport Improvement Program as part of the fiscal year 2008 omnibus spending package. However, a failure to provide contract authority for the AIP program has prevented the Federal Aviation Administration from releasing those funds to airports for critical infrastructure upgrades.
In a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and other key congressional officials, Barclay highlighted the impact that continued delays in issuing AIP grants could have on airports. Smaller airports, Barclay noted, face the prospect of defaulting on airport bonds if grants to fulfill Letters of Intent (LOIs) are delayed. Additionally, airport sponsors need assurances quickly that the FAA will release grants soon so they can issue bids for projects and take advantage of the construction season.
“Unless Congress acts soon, we are quickly nearing the point at which a portion of the construction season could be lost – a fact that could delay critical safety and capacity projects.” Barclay wrote.

It Could Be Worse
Airlines fighting the comparatively benign passenger bills of rights proposed or already law in the U.S., should be glad they are not facing the sanctions for late flights proposed in China for next summer. Airlines failing the standards imposed by the General Administration of Civil Aviation will not be allowed to expand for two years and chronically late flights face sanctions that include having flight routes suspended for the summer quarter when the Beijing Olympics are expected to boost traffic to record levels, according to Xinhua news agency and Reuters.
Beijing Airport plans to limit flights to 1,350 flights daily to ensure on-time arrivals and departures and authorities are requiring airlines to keep aircraft in reserve at airports where Olympic visitors are expected. In addition, travel agents will not be able to sell more seats than are actually available on flights during the summer.
Airlines should also be glad U.S. passenger reaction to flight delays do not match that of the Chinese. Reuters reported that passengers normally face “long delays, abrupt cancellations and surly, overwhelmed staff,” a painfully familiar scenario faced by those in the U.S. However, in China, said Xinhua and Reuters, “Seething passengers have fought back by refusing to leave aircraft until compensation is paid for late flights, storming runways, and breaking down doors when herded into lounges after unannounced diversions to remote airports.”
Reuters also quoted the People’s Daily which reported that, as in the U.S. on-time flights only reached about 75 percent at a time when passenger numbers exceeded 185 million. That seems a paltry sum compared to the many hundreds of millions on U.S. flights. Chinese authorities project that number will reach 200 million with the Olympics.