FAA urges fewer flights to KORD

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FAA Urges Fewer Flights at Crowded O'Hare
Aug 4, 5:33 PM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Persistent delays at Chicago's O'Hare International
Airport have a cascading effect throughout the nation's air system. So
federal officials now are warning that they will fix the problem if
the airlines do not.

"As Chicago goes, so goes the system," Marion Blakey, head of the
Federal Aviation Administration, said Wednesday. "We will have to take
action unilaterally if we can't come to an agreement."

Blakey summoned executives from every major domestic airline to FAA
headquarters in an effort to jawbone them into agreeing to reduce
their O'Hare schedules.

O'Hare, which handles both cargo and passenger traffic, has more
takeoffs and landings each year than any other airport in the world.

On an average weekday this summer, just under 3,000 planes are taking
off and landing at O'Hare. During the first six months of this year,
there were 490,987 flights arriving and departing the airport.

About two-thirds of arrivals are on-time this year, compared with the
82 percent systemwide goal the FAA sets.

"If it weren't for O'Hare, we'd be making that goal," Blakey said.

Flights departing behind schedule from Chicago will be late everywhere
else they fly that day. Seven in 10 passengers flying to O'Hare
connect to other flights.

Many planes pass through Chicago's airspace because of its location -
right in the middle of the continent. Sometimes the sky over Chicago
gets so crowded that air traffic controllers have to delay flights
that land elsewhere.

When O'Hare gets jammed, controllers delay takeoffs at other airports
to give O'Hare time to clear out its backlog.

It does not help that the fastest growing airport in the country is
about 15 miles to the south of O'Hare. Midway Airport now handles an
average of 1,100 takeoffs and landings daily.

Adding to the congestion are small regional jets, which now account
for four out of 10 flights at O'Hare. Unlike the propeller planes they
replaced, regional jets use the same runways and fly in the same
airspace as bigger planes, but carry fewer passengers.

Also, unusual weather patterns this year have caused a high number of
severe thunderstorms in some of the country's most congested areas -
from Chicago east through the upper Midwest, the Northeast and
Mid-Atlantic.

On Wednesday, thunderstorms en route to Chicago caused average arrival
delays of 51 minutes.

But airlines, enjoying a resurgence since the Sept. 11 attacks, have
compounded the problem by adding too many scheduled flights, Blakey
said.

"You can't control the weather, but you can control your schedules,"
she told airline officials.

Air Transport Association spokesman Jack Evans said more planes have
been a boon for consumers. "People are getting an incredible value,"
said Evans, whose group represents major airlines.

Blakey said the problem started in November, when airlines expanded
their schedules.

That month, flights arrived on time 60 percent, down from rates of 75
percent to 85 percent in earlier periods, she said.

United and American airlines, which handle 88 percent of O'Hare
flights, agreed to reduce their schedules during peak hours by 7.5
percent.

Other carriers, though, added O'Hare flights to their schedules.
United and American have said those airlines are to blame for the
worsening congestion.

The resulting increase in delays led to Wednesday's meeting, during
which airline executives met individually with FAA officials to
propose schedule reductions.

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said the
real solution is an updated and expanded O'Hare.

The city submitted a plan in 2001 to reconfigure runways and create
new ones to cut flight delays and increase flight capacity. But the
$15 billion plan has run into stiff opposition. New runways at O'Hare
are believed to be years away.

Blakey acknowledged that more pavement is the solution to reducing
O'Hare's congestion.

BL.
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Brad Littlejohn | Email:
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Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! | http://www.sbcglobal.net/~tyketto
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A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

wrote in message
om...
A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

If that was the case, there are currently plenty of 747s parked in the
desert, ready to go. Yet 40% of the traffic at ORD is now comprised of
regional jets. Domestic flights seem to be getting smaller on average, not
larger. Since much of the traffic at ORD is comprised of transfers, the
answer should be to shift a portion of these operations to the numerous
mid-continent airports that have plenty of spare capacity. Kansas City would
make a great hub if they rebuilt one of their terminals. St. Louis is
underutilized by American.

wrote in message
om...
A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

If that was the case, there are currently plenty of 747s parked in the
desert, ready to go. Yet 40% of the traffic at ORD is now comprised of
regional jets. Domestic flights seem to be getting smaller on average, not
larger. Since much of the traffic at ORD is comprised of transfers, the
answer should be to shift a portion of these operations to the numerous
mid-continent airports that have plenty of spare capacity. Kansas City would
make a great hub if they rebuilt one of their terminals. St. Louis is
underutilized by American.

wrote in message
om...
A Guy Called Tyketto wrote

snip

Suddenly there is a US market for the A380?

If that was the case, there are currently plenty of 747s parked in the
desert, ready to go. Yet 40% of the traffic at ORD is now comprised of
regional jets. Domestic flights seem to be getting smaller on average, not
larger. Since much of the traffic at ORD is comprised of transfers, the
answer should be to shift a portion of these operations to the numerous
mid-continent airports that have plenty of spare capacity. Kansas City would
make a great hub if they rebuilt one of their terminals. St. Louis is
underutilized by American.