Good News for Air Travelers -- Finally

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.

During the past year, however, he's seen a "marked improvement" in Atlanta. "When Atlanta opened that new runway" last year, he says, "it made a huge difference."

That's small consolation to fliers who get caught in New York's gridlock, sometimes because they live or travel there but sometimes even if they don't travel anywhere near New York City's skyscrapers. Flights held up in New York often are late the rest of the day as they fly from city to city.

Many fliers complain these days that they spend more time sitting on planes awaiting takeoff to or from New York than it takes to fly their trips. Security consultant Alan Brill of Staten Island, N.Y., arrived at Kennedy recently to fly to Atlanta and was thrilled to find that, for once, his plane was at the gate. The crew closed the doors and backed up the jet on time.

Then it sat for three hours.

"As we were turning onto the runway for takeoff, the captain told us he was sorry about the delay," he says. It could've been worse; there were 62 planes behind Brill's, waiting to take off.

New York's problems were so serious last summer that on Oct. 23 the government convened unusual meetings with airline executives in Washington to pressure them to cut flights at Kennedy during its busiest hours.

"President Bush has made it clear that the conditions travelers experienced this summer are unacceptable and must be fixed," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters told airline officials.

Major improvements that could bring relief to New York airports, such as untangling antiquated flight routes there, are taking years to make and face intense opposition from citizens groups wary of new flight routes over their homes.

Meanwhile, the FAA's "next generation" air-traffic control system — which will rely on satellites instead of ground radar — won't be ready until at least 2020.

Signs of improvement

Even as the New York-area airports drags down the aviation system, signs of improvement are popping up across the nation:

•In Atlanta, where a new runway opened late last year, delays plummeted by 40% during the first eight months of this year compared with the same period in 2006. Meanwhile, thanks to new technology on jets and special pilot training, Delta Air Lines, the dominant carrier at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson, has begun flying more direct routes into and out of Atlanta than were possible in the past. Together, the improvements have decreased Delta's delays three to five minutes per flight.

•At Boston Logan International Airport, the number of late flights also fell this year after a new runway opened. The new runway has allowed Logan to remain efficient in different weather conditions, helping the airport record 36% fewer delays this year than last.

•Chicago O'Hare saw delays skyrocket in 2004 as competition between American Airlines and United Airlines led to sharp increases in flights there. A cap imposed under pressure by FAA limited flights to 88 an hour and cut delays. A rerouting of flights in the Midwest last year helped reduce delays further. As part of an effort to make O'Hare's runways more efficient over the next decade, a new runway will open in 2008.

•Declines in traffic prompted by financial problems and strategic shifts in the airline industry have helped cut delays at several other airports. San Francisco International, which was one of the most delay-prone airports in 2000, has shed nearly two-thirds of its late flights after United Airlines cut flights. St. Louis and Washington Dulles also ran more smoothly than in 2000 as flights by American declined at St. Louis and numerous carriers reduced service at Dulles.

The FAA numbers are based on air-traffic logs of flights delayed by controllers. Because they do not include flights that were late because of previous delays during the day, they differ from on-time statistics compiled by federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

An aviation bottleneck

The reductions in delays at airports across the nation could be negated by steady growth in air travel, MIT's Hansman says.

"I think New York is a leading indicator of what the rest of the system will look like in the coming decades if we don't change the way we do business" by redesigning air routes, using new technology to accommodate increased flights and expanding airports, he says.

Thirty miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan, a narrow aviation bottleneck helps explain New York's problems and why it is so hard to make improvements.

Every jet departing the New York region to the north, many headed to Europe and New England, must fly over a narrow bottleneck known as the "Northgate." Depending on winds and other factors, jets bound for cities to the west often want the route as well.

But the Northgate, part of the region's out-of-date route structure, can handle only 70 to 80 flights an hour. If other flights traverse the same area, the numbers drop.

Frequently this year, the number of planes requesting travel through the Northgate exceeded its capacity, says Mike Sammartino, who directs traffic system operations at the FAA. When that happened, controllers halted northbound planes before takeoff, keeping them on the ground until space opened up, Sammartino says. The delays occurred frequently, even when the weather was perfect.

Just as when traffic on a crowded highway slows to a crawl after a few drivers tap the brake pedal, delaying a few flights headed out of New York triggers problems at all the region's airports.

"There is a domino effect down to the alleyways in the airports," Sammartino says.

There are dozens of similar chokepoints within the region, which stretches from eastern Pennsylvania to Long Island and north to southern Connecticut. Depending on weather and traffic, any of them can start a chain reaction of delays.

The FAA plans to boost the Northgate's capacity by adding more paths for planes heading north, but the plans could take years to impose. The FAA said Sept. 5 it will reroute aircraft in the New York area to cut delays. Many residents oppose the plan and local government officials have filed several lawsuits in an effort to block it.

Meanwhile, there has been considerable tension between the FAA and the union representing its air-traffic controllers since a labor contract that cut controllers' pay was imposed on them last year. The union says retirements of experienced controllers and understaffing are contributing to New York's delays, a claim the FAA disputes.

Agam Sinha, general manager of Mitre Corp.'s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, which studies air-traffic issues for the FAA, says the region's woes are complicated by issues like this, which will take time to fix.

"It's a problem that doesn't really have any easy solutions," he says.

On Sept. 27, Peters and the White House stepped in and ordered airlines to discuss reducing their schedules at Kennedy, where the numbers of flights and delays have increased faster than at any other major U.S. airport.

The FAA says the airport has more flights than it can handle in the early morning and for much of the afternoon and evening.

Airlines lashed out at the FAA for not moving more quickly on its own efforts to staunch delays and laid blame in part on the increasing use of private jets, which fly the same routes as airline jets.

The National Business Aviation Association responded by accusing airlines of creating their own problems with bloated schedules and too many small regional jets that take up as much room as a large jet but carry far fewer people.

Airlines blast the government for trying to cut too many flights.

"We are disappointed the government is rushing to impose constraints and limit the airport before taking the steps necessary to bring the airport up to capacity," said Delta Air Lines Executive Vice President Glen Hauenstein.

Delta and its affiliates operate the most flights of any carrier at Kennedy after increasing operations 86% in the past three years, to 375 flights a day in August.

A close No. 2 is Kennedy-based JetBlue Airways, which expanded flights there 89% in three years, to 365 a day.

Connecting through other hubs

Oregon-based flier Ronald Olshausen has seen close-up the travails of the nation's air-traffic system this year.

Bad weather has twice stranded the management consultant for at least five hours on the tarmac at Kennedy. Olshausen, 43, says he's even more fed up by what he sees on his nearly weekly commute to New York: Flights there never seem to run on time anymore.

But like nearly all of the two dozen frequent fliers surveyed for this story, Olshausen says it's gotten easier to fly outside New York. He usually connects through other hub airports such as Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City or Cincinnati.

"Most of those hubs run pretty smoothly," he says. "New York airports are always bad, regardless of the weather."