Airlines Threatened With Scheduling Restrictions

Wasn't this my idea a few weeks back?



Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters appears to accept that general
aviation is not to blame for flight delays at major airports and says her
department will impose scheduling restrictions on airlines, if necessary,
improve on-time records. The first target could be JFK in New York. Peters
has called a meeting between airline representatives and the FAA for Oct.
23-24 to discuss the problems. "Our first choice is to find market-based
incentives to fix delays so we can preserve passenger choice, but we will
consider imposing scheduling restrictions as one option to avoid a repeat of
this summer's delays," Peters said in a news release. As part of their
campaign to create a user-fee system for FAA services, the airlines have
alleged that general aviation traffic is largely to blame for airline delays
but Peters doesn't mention little airplanes in her release. She notes that
in the 18 months ending in August, airlines boosted the number of scheduled
flights into JFK by 41 percent and the number of arrivals being delayed by
more than an hour went up 114 percent. The airport's overall on-time record
dropped to 59 percent. Last month, Peters formed the Aviation Rulemaking
Committee, which will report to President Bush in December on ways to reduce
airline delays. At the same time, she said, her department is monitoring
chronically delayed flights and looking at ways to improve consumer
protection, such as requiring increased compensation for passengers who are
bumped.