The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is phasing in a new program designed to greatly reduce severe weather flight delays and save $900 million for airlines and passengers.

The Regional Airline Association (RAA) was not ready to comment on the new initiative. However, it is well known delays have a far greater impact on short-haul flights than most major-carrier flights. The Department of Transportation Inspector General reported that flights to and from small communities suffered greater consequences from delays or cancellations simply by virtue of the fact that passengers have few alternatives, short of driving, which has an extremely negative impact on passenger confidence in small community air service. (RAN, July 10, p.1)

The IG's analysis revealed that cancellations and delays of flights into five large hub airports were essentially the same as those for the 14 small communities that were part of the study; but both the length of delays and cancellation rates were higher for small communities. In addition, the IG found that short-haul flights were more likely to be cancelled than medium- or long-haul flights. Scheduled flights at small communities were down 17 percent in the first three months of 2006 from the same period in 2000, compared to only five percent at larger communities with medium and large hubs, according to the report. The findings mirror a BACK Aviation Solutions report concluding that nonstop routes served by turboprops have dropped by 58 percent since 1996 and departures have fallen 69 percent. (RAN, April 3, p.1)

The Airspace Flow Program allows controllers to delay only those flights that are expected to encounter extremely bad weather. As a result the new program is expected to minimize the impact of sudden thunderstorms that bog down the airspace system during the summer. The agency said there are as many as 40 severe weather days each year.

Controllers will be able to work around severe weather in highly congested airspace with greater precision and efficiency, said Administrator Marion Blakey, who indicated using the system just 10 times this year will result in cost benefits of $20 million. They will issue expected departure times for those aircraft destined to pass through bad weather, by integrating existing technologies and relying on a team of officials representing the agency, airlines and the general aviation community. The team also established protocols for deciding on the best time and methods for using the program.