Looks like things aren't going very well.
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Jon Hilkevitch
Summit on O'Hare delays was miscalculated
Published August 9, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The flight delay statistics are grim, but just how bad is congestion at O'Hare International Airport as vacationers try to get away this month during the busiest travel period of the summer?
To put the situation in terms that an automobile driver would understand, the congestion choking O'Hare and the surrounding airspace is so severe that airline pilots bound for Chicago from the East often must start "tapping the brakes" somewhere around Cleveland.
Instead of flying in a straight line, pilots program onboard computers to guide the planes in slow, gentle S-shaped turns. The maneuver, imperceptible to passengers, kills time while flight crews wait to enter the jammed-up arrival streams of traffic to O'Hare.
Tricks like that, plus airline scheduling practices that add a half-hour to an hour to each domestic flight to make on-time performance at O'Hare appear not quite so awful, are what you, the passenger, get along with a bag of mini-pretzels. But even a salty snack doesn't cover up the bad taste of almost 60,000 delayed flights at O'Hare in the first half of the year.
So it was with great anticipation (by some) that help was on the way last week when U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey called 16 airlines to a conference in Washington seeking to cut O'Hare flights to manageable levels. The plan was that nobody would leave until a temporary solution was hammered out and victory could be proclaimed over overscheduling at O'Hare, which has caused major delays at airports around the country.
Mineta was given the authority by Congress last year to summon the airlines to one-on-one talks and pressure them to reduce flights because a messed-up commercial aviation system is a drag on the economy, and it's a potential danger to safety. The three-day scheduling conference, which broke up unsuccessfully Friday and was to continue by telephone Monday, was Mineta's final attempt to persuade the air carriers to cut O'Hare flights voluntarily, before he was prepared to impose mandatory flight limits that could be much harsher.
The airline summit was a stunning miscalculation and embarrassment for the government. Airline executives--well aware that President Bush and influential members of Congress oppose government intervention in the private sector as much as they do, and knowing that all bets are off until after the November presidential election--were not intimidated by Mineta's threat to decree a flight-cap "slottery."
"Even with Uncle Sam putting a gun to their head, none of the airlines is willing to show their cards, their price structures or their competitive position," said one airport operator in the Midwest. "No matter how bad the delays, nobody wants to reduce hourly flights from O'Hare to New York City, Washington and Newark."
Sources said the schedule-reduction talks recessed last week with American Airlines complaining that United Airlines, which operates the most flights at O'Hare, is unwilling to go far enough in making additional cuts. Bankrupt United pointed blame at American for ramping up O'Hare flights in November, starting a new war for domination of O'Hare.
And both major carriers yelped that the government should have prevented the fledgling airline Independence Air from landing at O'Hare this summer with a total of 24 additional daily takeoffs and landings.
Independence Air, USA3000 Airlines, Pinnacle Airlines and other small carriers that have jumped into the O'Hare market recently are refusing to cut more than a token flight or two, saying they will not be shoved out of O'Hare by American and United.
"The airlines are struggling in bankruptcy or near it, and now they are being told to reduce flights," said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who asked Mineta in January to hold the scheduling conference. "It's a painful decision, but one that has to be carried out."
The temporary flight reductions sought by the FAA to restore a semblance of on-time performance at O'Hare are not huge--about 60 fewer flights out of 2,900 a day, including the smoothing out of airline schedules during the busiest travel hours. Such cuts to reduce delays would not make O'Hare, which for the first half of the year ranked last in performance, No. 1.
It's a minimally effective short-term solution to stop the bleeding until O'Hare is expanded, a state-backed south suburban airport in is built in Will County and existing airports in the region are upgraded to accommodate more commercial air service.
The proposed airport near Peotone is still farmland, but Mineta and the FAA unwisely shut the door at last week's meeting with the airlines to talk about using a reliever airport that could immediately help ease the O'Hare crunch: Gary-Chicago International Airport.
Mineta turned down requests from Indiana Gov. Joseph Kernan and the state's congressional delegation for officials from the Gary airport to participate in the airline scheduling conference, officials said.
"We are not the long-term solution to O'Hare's problems," Gary-Chicago Administrator Paul Karas said. "But for the 2.7 million travelers in our market who can drive more quickly to Gary than to O'Hare, we can provide relief today."
With the prospect of higher airfares and less seat capacity at O'Hare in the months and possibly years to come, Karas is optimistic that "the lemon O'Hare has to deal with now should become lemonade for Gary."
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