| $11.5 Billion to Cut Air Delays - FAA | |
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Dateline 06/07/01
Planes flying closer together along more routes to more runways pretty well summarizes the government's $11.5 billion, 10-year plan to reduce airline delays announced on Wednesday by the FAA.
Depending heavily on technological advances, such as satellite-based navigation systems, the 10-year modernization plan combines several government and industry initiatives FAA planners say will result in a 30 percent increase in the capacity of the nation's aging air traffic control system.
According to FAA planners, replacing ground-based radar with satellite-based location systems and improved communications hardware, will allow controllers to safely reduce currently mandated distances between planes in flight, thus allowing more planes to utilize existing routes. The FAA will then be able to identify and open up new and more direct routes between the nation's major airports.
Currently carrying some 620 million passengers annually, the FAA expects US airlines will need to accommodate over 1 billion flyers within 10 years.
According to the FAA, a majority of last year's record 425,000 flight delays were caused by bad weather.
The FAA expects that be accomplishing the system upgrades proposed in their 10-year plan, controllers will able to utilize new routes to bypass storms, thus avoiding many weather-related delays.Reducing the mandatory spacing between in-flight planes and allowing for planes to operate at higher altitudes would basically create more room for more planes and, thus, more passengers, says the FAA.
Of course, more planes in the air are going to need more places to land, so the final leg of the FAA's modernization plan calls for stepped up construction of new runways and passenger handling systems at airports.
Noting that its modernization plan encompasses some 50 projects either already underway or under development and, thus, will probably change over its 10-year life.
"This is a comprehensive snapshot of projects and solutions on the books," FAA Administrator Jane Garvey told reporters on Wednesday. "As we implement these initiatives we will continue to look for new ideas and solutions and the best technologies."
Much of the FAA's direction and authority for the plan comes from an executive order issued by then President Clinton on Dec. 7, 2001. The order, Air Traffic Performance-Based Organization, directs the FAA to, "further improve the provision of air traffic services, an inherently governmental function, in ways that increase efficiency, take better advantage of new technologies, accelerate modernization efforts, and respond more effectively to the needs of the traveling public, while enhancing the safety, security, and efficiency of the Nation's air transportation system."
