In an effort to avoid a repeat of last summer when delays were the worst in history, the Federal Aviation Administration is expanding its airspace flow program using a new program to identify bad weather areas, search flight plans to see which ones will be affected and then offer airlines the choice of accepting an expected departure time or a longer route around the storm. It has also imposed a new software program called “adaptive compression” which automatically identifies slots that might go unused and moves other flights into those slots. Both American (AMR) and Delta (DAL) have praised the program, which, said FAA, saved airlines 3,000 minutes of delay in April. The agency estimates the programs will save $100 million annually.
Last year’s imposition of 36 airspace flow programs on 19 days from June through August realized a 21 percent reduction in delays. This year it is adding eleven new locations, distributed throughout the center of the country, to the seven it deployed last year to manage delays in severe weather. The program covers the East and Midwest from Canada to Mexico, where thunderstorms are likely. Delays between January and April topped 142,000, up from the 126,000 delays in the year-ago period. In 2006, there were more than 500,000 delays of 15 minutes or more.
ATA forecasts that a record number of passengers will travel this summer with an anticipated 209 million passengers. The 10-day Memorial Day is expected to yield 21.4 million passengers worldwide on U.S. airlines, up 3.3 percent from the year-ago period.