Good News for Air Travelers -- Finally
In wake of the U.S.'s worst year of flight delays, steady improvements made.
Nov. 8, 2007 — -- This has been the USA's worst year on record for flight delays and airport gridlock, but there is some unexpected good news: Most of the nation's aviation system actually is performing relatively well and reducing delays. The volume of late flights at the New York City area's major airports — John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty and Philadelphia, which shares New York's airspace — surged so much this year that it swamped the entire aviation system, federal data show. New York's mess triggered finger-pointing among airlines, the government and air-traffic controllers — and an unusual federal effort to force airlines to cut flights at JFK, where delays have grown the fastest.
The controversy has obscured a pleasant surprise for travelers: Improvements at airports elsewhere are reducing delays in many spots across the nation, according to a USA TODAY analysis of flight delay data and interviews with airline executives, aviation analysts and air-traffic officials. From January through August, the largest 31 airports outside the New York region had 8% fewer total delays than during the same period in 2006, according to Federal Aviation Administration data. Even Chicago's O'Hare and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson — the world's two busiest airports and big generators of delays that ripple through the U.S. aviation system — improved.
Meanwhile, delays at the four New York-area airports jumped nearly 23%, driving a 3.7% increase in total delays nationwide.
It's as if there now are two different aviation systems in the USA: In New York, there are too many scheduled flights and hemmed-in airports that can't expand. But at other major airports, new runways, incremental improvements in air-traffic procedures and airlines' moves to improve efficiency have begun to make a measurable difference for travelers.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: American Airlines | Federal Aviation Administration | Delta Air Lines | JFK | Delays | Frequent flier | John Hansman For many air travelers, the key to a tolerable trip has become relatively simple: If possible, avoid flying through one of the New York-area airports, where two-hour delays aren't unusual.
"Everybody is talking about how bad it is," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics professor John Hansman, who has spent years studying the air-traffic system. "But in reality, it is better than we would have expected."
The reductions in delays at many large airports indicate that moves by the FAA, airlines and the airports are making modest improvements to air travel, Hansman and other analysts say. For example, new runways have opened recently at five major airports: Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, Boston Logan, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Lambert-St. Louis.
Frequent flier Richard Libonate, head of sales for Detour energy bars, flies regularly from his Tampa home through Atlanta to New York. Atlanta used to be like New York, he says. "I was guaranteed I was going to be delayed on both ends" of a flight.
Related Stories
ABC News Live