CAPBOR Says Too Little, Too Late; NATCA Says It Will Have "No Real Effect"

President Bush's plan to reduce airline delays over the upcoming holiday travel season was met with raised eyebrows and much skepticism Thursday by the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

CAPBOR founder Kate Hanni said the Bush plan effectively postpones a decision on the passenger bill of rights legislation now before Congress, tied into the FAA reauthorization bill.

"Today the President outlined steps to effort to alleviate delays over this year’s Thanksgiving holiday," Hanni told ANN. "However, these band-aid solutions will do nothing to address the harms caused to passengers and in no way compels airlines to reform how their customers are treated.  This stopgap measure is too little, too late, and will do nothing to help the fact that the airlines overload thousands of flights into hub airports at rush hour, causing massive delays and for passengers to be stranded for hours on end."

Hanni also criticized the plan to open up military airspace in the northeastern US for commercial flights, saying it "is like adding a lane to an exit ramp on I-95 north of Miami. 

"For months, there has been lots of talk about modernizing our system and airline customer service, but its time for Congress to take action," Hanni said. "That’s why we urge the President to work with Congress to secure rights for those traveling our nation’s airways, and to finally pass a Passengers’ Bill of Rights as part of the FAA Reauthorization bill."

Doug Church, spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said for all the pomp and circumstance, the Bush plan "will have no real effect whatsoever.

"This is because there are 7.5 percent fewer veteran, fully trained air traffic controllers on staff at FAA air traffic facilities nationwide this holiday season than in 2006, handling 4 percent more traffic," Church said. "If anything, delays will INCREASE this holiday season, not decrease. Until the FAA finds a way to keep its veteran controllers on staff to handle holiday traffic, and ALL traffic year-round, and train new hires, the system will continue to deteriorate.

"We are losing an average of three controllers a day due to the current labor situation (we have no contract)," Church adds. "In fiscal year 2007, 856 veteran controllers retired, 36 percent more than the FAA projected, including half in their FIRST YEAR of retirement eligibility. Only 16 were forced to retire (age 56 mandatory retirement). The controller workforce is tired, fed up and stressed out.

NATCA also points out the FAA tried once before to increase airspace, with the 2005 implementation of Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums, or RVSM. 

"It didn’t work in terms of reducing delays," Church said. "[I]t doubled the amount of high altitude airspace that controllers could use for flights above 29,000 feet, by reducing minimum separation from 2,000 feet between planes to 1,000 feet. How did it affect delays? Well in 2007, delays were the worst on record! So clearly, airspace is not the problem. Staffing is the problem, in addition to limited ground capacity at major airports like JFK. You only have so many gates and so many runways."

FMI: www.flyersrights.com, www.natca.org