Sat, Dec 20, 2008
No Delays For Santa's Sleigh... Must Not Be Connecting In
ATL...
Santa Claus will enjoy special express lanes in the skies over
the United States to help him make speedy deliveries to good girls
and boys on Christmas Eve, US Transportation Secretary Mary E.
Peters announced Thursday.
By using the special "Santa Skylanes," Santa will have access to
the same military airspace that President Bush announced would be
made available to civilian flights during the holiday period.
"We know Santa Claus must adhere to a really tight schedule to
get to every house on his list," said Peters, as she presented
Santa his Christmas Eve flight certificate at Andrews Air Force
Base. "Allowing him to use military airspace will ensure that
crowded skies won't mean empty stockings on Christmas morning. It
just wouldn't do to have the gridlock Grinch stealing
Christmas."
Peters
noted the temporary use of military airspace for civilian flights,
made available by the US Air Force, significantly reduced travel
times during last year's holiday period. Last year's "Holiday
Express Lanes" allowed some East Coast flights to trim 100 miles
off their trip, while 4,800 flights used California military
airspace to save over 99,000 miles.
This year, Holiday Express Lanes have been expanded to help
Santa
and commercial aircraft navigate over busy
areas of the Midwest, the Southwest, and the West Coast, including
the skies over Phoenix and Los Angeles. Over the Thanksgiving
weekend, the lanes were used by almost 2,400 flights and were
especially helpful in routing around bad weather on November 30,
the busy Sunday after Thanksgiving.
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