FAA Details Answers to Flight Delays

A 10-year plan by the Federal Aviation Administration released Wednesday calls for new automation and greater use of secondary airports to ease traffic congestion at Los Angeles International Airport and other major airports across the country.

“It’s a good initiative that will make the skies safer,” said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Redondo Beach), leader of a bipartisan coalition of House members who have expressed strong opposition to a major expansion of LAX.

“The plan makes it easier to manage a regional transportation network,” Harman said.

Overall, the FAA’s $11.5-billion blueprint, which will depend largely on funding from Congress, calls for new technology, new runways at 15 major airports and new air routes to reduce flight delays.

While arrivals at LAX now average 16 minutes late, departures generally are not a problem, and the plan envisions no new runways there.

However, the plan calls for new automation at LAX to help air traffic controllers line up planes more efficiently for landing. It also endorses greater use of secondary airports to help relieve congestion at major airports, which many Southern California and U.S. officials have urged.

“The ability of secondary airports to serve traffic efficiently is key to successful operations at the [major] airports,” the plan said.

Airline executives, aviation experts and members of Congress reacted positively to the plan, whose outlines have been known for several days but whose details were revealed only Wednesday.

At the Air Transport Assn., the only trade organization representing the principal U.S. airlines, officials praised the FAA’s proposals but said there is more to be done.

“The FAA plan is a strong collaborative effort that will enable us to fully modernize our air transport system and simultaneously reduce delays and congestion prevalent throughout the system today,” spokesman Michael Wascom said.

Airlines already are “well on their way” to buying much of the equipment envisioned in the plan, he said.

Purchasing jetliners and other equipment to fulfill the plan’s requirements will cost American Airlines nearly $1 billion over the next 10 years, Capt. Russell Chew, an airline representative, told reporters. He said American and other airlines worked closely with FAA officials on the plan.

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), a leading aviation authority in Congress, said the FAA “for the first time has brought all elements together in one plan for modernizing our air traffic control system. It’s the first totally coordinated effort undertaken by the FAA.”

Phil Boyer, president of the 370,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn., said that “never before have I seen the FAA dedicate so many resources to finding realistic, pragmatic solutions to a national problem.”

According to deputy FAA administrator Monte Belger, the plan envisions a 30% increase in commercial operations over the next decade.

“We think we can accommodate an additional 11,000 flight departures a day over the next 10 years,” he said.

Ultimately, the government will help fund a satellite-based air traffic control system designed to boost air capacity, reduce delays and improve safety, officials said. Representatives of Boeing Co. told reporters they began working on such a system in November.

The plan assumes that global positioning information from satellites in future years will allow planes to fly closer together without compromising safety. Perhaps as early as next year, FAA officials hope to reduce vertical separation of aircraft flying at cruising altitudes of between 26,000 and 41,000 feet.

To improve the forecasting of thunderstorms, the single biggest cause of summertime flight delays, FAA administrator Jane Garvey has been experimenting with a data-sharing program between airlines and the FAA.

Among 50 separate initiatives detailed in the 10-year plan is the addition of more technology to this program. Solving weather-related delays will involve “improved weather prediction and forecast distribution, more flexibility in routing [and] faster identification of airspace and flights impacted by weather,” according to the plan.

With improved satellite navigation, pilots can be given more flexibility to fly safely around thunderstorms without the risk of encountering other aircraft, officials said.

One in every four flights was delayed or canceled last year, and airline flights are projected to rise from almost 26 million in 2000 to 36 million in 2012, according to the FAA.