Congestion Pricing
The Transportation Department's plan to cut flight delays is a short-term fix.
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THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation has proposed congestion pricing at the nation's busiest airports. After a year of horrible travel delays and cancellations, something had to be done to try to bring order to crowded airports. The plan would allow congested airports to charge airlines a fee to take off or land at peak travel times. But this short-term fix is not enough. Upgrading the air traffic control system is the real solution to America's air-travel woes.
The inspiration for the new rules was John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. In announcing the policy, the Transportation Department noted that the number of arrival delays exceeding one hour there increased by 114 percent in the first 10 months of fiscal 2007. It also pointed out something that air travelers learned all too well last summer: Delays originating at New York airports alone can account for up to one-third of the air-travel delays throughout the nation.
The department's objectives are twofold. The new pricing scheme would encourage the airlines to stop packing their schedules with flights in certain parts of the day. The result could be a more even distribution of arrivals and departures throughout the day, and the diversion of some flights to nearby, underutilized airports. The other goal would be to persuade the airlines to use planes that carry more passengers and reduce their use of smaller, regional jets.
The incentive for airport operators is that they can factor into their fees the reasonable costs associated with runway and other facility improvements that would ultimately aid in reducing delays. Of course, the airlines aren't too keen on the new rules, which would go into effect after a 45-day comment period if no significant changes are required.
In slamming the department's proposal, Air Transport Association President James C. May made the good point that the plan "does nothing to fix the primary cause of delays: our nation's increasingly antiquated air traffic control system." The Federal Aviation Administration has been waiting for nearly a year for Congress to fund a state-of-the-art satellite navigation system that would allow pilots and controllers to use air space more efficiently. A dogfight among the various interests over how to pay for it is bogging things down. It's time Congress resolved it.
