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Copyright 1999 The Christian Science Publishing Society
The Christian Science Monitor
September 7, 1999, Tuesday
SECTION: EDITORIALS; THE MONITOR'S VIEW; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 448 words
HEADLINE: Solving Those Airport Delays
BODY:
If you thought there were a lot of delayed flights this summer, you were right.
A study released last week by the Federal
Aviation Administration and the major airlines confirms delays are running almost 20
percent more than last year. The number of late flights climbed seriously
starting in April. At fault: bad weather, a lot more flights, and new equipment
that controllers are still learning to use.
The report also found that poor communication between air-traffic-control
centers and a lack of standardized equipment are stalling the system. Things
got so bad the heads of several major airlines went straight to Federal
Aviation Administration chief Jane Garvey for action.
Last month Ms. Garvey announced a series of steps meant to speed things up. She
gave the air-traffic command center in Herndon, Va., authority over regional
centers on traffic patterns. The national center can take a bigger-picture
approach to steering flights around bad weather.
Garvey also limited controllers' use of spacing restrictions between aircraft.
Current regulations call for five miles between planes; some controllers have
kept them as much as 90 miles apart. The FAA administrator also promised to
give
airlines more information on how long delays will last.
But more is needed.
There's been serious underinvestment in the nation's
aviation infrastructure - computers, radars, runways - for several years now. The
federal government collects ticket fees for the
Aviation Trust Fund, but as with gas taxes for highways, much of the money has been spent on other
programs.
Rep. Bud Shuster (R) of Pennsylvania, chairman of the House transportation
committee, has a plan to fix that. His
aviation bill would greatly increase the amount spent on airports and air-traffic
systems, mostly by taking the
Aviation Trust Fund off budget. That means the ticket taxes collected could only be spent on
aviation.
For budgetary reasons, that's a bad idea. Social Security is one thing, but if
every other
trust fund is taken
off budget, Congress and the president will be in a spending straightjacket,
unable to move
funds where they are most needed at any given time. The Shuster plan would spend the
entire transportation budget on highways and
aviation to the exclusion of other transportation needs.
Better to leave the
trust fund in the general budget but mandate greater annual spending for
aviation. The FAA's short-term steps are welcome, but only stepped-up investment in
infrastructure and equipment will soothe the turbulence in the nation's
airways.
(c) Copyright 1999. The Christian Science Publishing Society
LOAD-DATE: September 06, 1999