FAA says holiday air travel will be easier

Associated Press

HERNDON, Va. — Federal officials sought on Thursday to assure travelers that improvements to the air traffic control system will make life easier for people flying during the Memorial Day weekend.

Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey came to an air traffic center in suburban Virginia to discuss new flight approaches for pilots, more space in the sky and ways to cope with weather and other reasons for air traffic bottlenecks.

"We’re very well prepared. We’ll see whether all of these improvements are able to reduce airline delays," Garvey told reporters. "We are certainly cautiously optimistic."

About a third of all flights on the Thursday and Friday before Memorial Day last year were at least 15 minutes late, federal statistics show. Overall, about one-quarter of all flights were delayed last year.

Garvey said she hoped for a better record this time. To illustrate her point, she made her announcement at the Air Traffic Control System, near Dulles International Airport, behind a backdrop of wall-sized screens displaying weather patterns and tracking aircraft in the sky.

In this center, beginning at 5 a.m. every day, FAA officials and airline representatives discuss possible problems and solutions. Officials, who monitor the entire air traffic control system, can plan how to reroute traffic around thunderstorms or whether to hold planes at airports until the weather clears. They repeat the process every two hours, all day.

The FAA showed 3,000 controllers and airline dispatchers how to work together. New air routes were opened through Canada and through space once reserved for military flights. Some routes in and out of airports were adjusted. Lower-altitude routes were made available to pilots flying short trips.

The one wild card is thunderstorms, which can force flights to be delayed or canceled throughout the country.

"Weather is always the great unknown," Garvey said.