The Regional Airline Association (RAA) has taken its defense of the regional jet (RJ) to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) docket.

In calling for new talks to reign in congestion at Chicago O'Hare International Airport, the Air Carrier Association of America (ACAA) wants the FAA to limit RJ flights at the airport. The trade group, which represents low-fare airlines, wants the FAA to begin negotiations by Nov. 1 so that a plan is drafted by the time the airlines write their spring schedules.

The airlines serving O'Hare, responding to FAA pressure, in August agreed to a winter flight schedule that will reduce peak departures to 88 flights an hour. The new schedule goes into effect in November and expires next April (CRAN, Aug. 30). The dominant carriers -- United Airlines [UALAQ] and American Airlines [AMR] -- had added 281 daily flights between 2000 and 2003. All other carriers had collectively added six daily flights. The ACAA wants the FAA to reduce the United and American daily flights by an additional 130 daily flights, enabling other carriers to fly up to 12 flights during the restricted hours.

In its filing, ACAA executive director Edward Faberman maintains that as American shifted flights from St. Louis to Chicago, United responded by dispatching RJs to these same destinations. Citing an earlier FAA report, Faberman claims that the influx of RJs "at times reduces the airport capacity as regional jets require greater separation times between operations than do larger jets."

Last year, 41 percent of O'Hare's traffic was RJs.

In its docket filing, RAA president Deborah McElroy pointed out that an official with the FAA's Air Traffic Organization disproved the earlier statement from the FAA inspector general (IG). "The separation standards are the same for all aircraft in a particular weight category; the vast majority of RJs are categorized as 'larger' and require the same separation as other narrow-body aircraft such as the Boeing [BA] 737 and Airbus 320."

"The RAA did not accurately portray my comments," Faberman told CRAN. "We believe that regional jets do impact ATC (air traffic control) operations. I will accept what the IG said, if the FAA believes the IG is wrong ... then please stand up and say there is no ATC impact from RJs, and then so be it -- the issue is over. ... It is essential that the FAA say it's true or say it is wrong."

McElroy noted that the IG is reviewing the separation issue as part of an ongoing study of the RJs' impact on the national airspace system.

The ACAA filing criticized the FAA for not taking any steps to address the growth of regional jets. The FAA in its order noted that the RJs are critical for service to small communities. At Chicago, the RJs are serving more than small communities, the ACAA noted.

"While it is important to enhance service to small communities, the larger increase in regional jet usage at O'Hare (and at other large airports) is not driven by small community service," Faberman said the filing. "In many cases, regional jets were utilized to add frequencies to medium and larger communities and to replace [mainline] jet operations."

As part of its call for a new round of talks beginning in November, the ACAA wants the FAA to classify the RJ destinations out of O'Hare as small, medium or large markets. It also wants the FAA to address the impact of RJs on O'Hare and also on the nation's air traffic control system. "We believe that RJs should be able to go to small markets and there should be some growth in those markets," Faberman told CRAN.

McElroy asked for the FAA to reject ACAA's request to limit the RJ "as there is no legal, technical or public policy basis to do so. Major and regional airlines are responding to market forces and passenger demand by adding new and supplemental regional jet service to markets of all sizes. Passengers traveling between Chicago and both large and small communities require the convenience and frequency made economically possible by the use of RJs, and there is no basis whatever for singling out RJ operations at O'Hare for restrictions."

>>Contact: Edward Faberman, ACAA, (202) 639-7502; Deborah McElroy, RAA, (202) 367-1170. The complete O'Hare file is available on the DOT docket at: http://dms.dot.gov. Case: FAA-2004-16944.<<