November 15, 2007
Bush Proposes Holiday Air Travel Fixes
As Americans gear up for yet another hectic holiday travel season, President Bush met with reporters at the White House today to address an issue that almost all Americans agree on: airline delays.
After 2006 set a new record for delayed flights at the nation's busiest airports, this year witnessed a number of high-profile reports of passengers being stranded, not only at airports, but also inside aircraft cabins for hours on the tarmac.
Bush referenced those horror stories in his brief address this afternoon as he laid out a four-point plan to reduce such problems in the short term. First, he said the military will open up airspace along the East Coast during a five-day period around the Thanksgiving holiday next week.
The Federal Aviation Administration, meanwhile, will put a holiday season "moratorium on all non-essential projects" to focus the bulk of its efforts on keeping flights on time and alleviating the bottlenecks in the New York City metropolitan area that are the main culprit in causing delays. The FAA and the Department of Transportation will simultaneously work to encourage airlines to take their own measures, such as staffing up and setting aside more seats and planes to accommodate the expected surge in holiday traffic.
Finally, in the event of delays and cancellations, Bush said the federal government will keep passengers updated via the Internet (fly.faa.gov) and, upon request, mobile phone alerts.
In addition to those short-term fixes, Bush mentioned several options being considered to improve customer service and reduce logjams in the long run. He mentioned increasing compensation for passengers who are bumped from flights, requiring airlines to develop contingency plans for stranded passengers and instituting penalties for "chronically late flights."
Bush first announced that he'd be looking into ways to ease air travel headaches in September, when he instructed Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Congress to look into ways of improving passenger treatment, reducing congestion at the nation's busiest airports and modernizing the FAA.
"Business as usual is not good enough for American travelers," Bush stressed in his remarks today, adding that he plans to work closely with Sens. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to pass an FAA modernization bill as soon as possible.
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, a House panel heard from the CEO of Delta Air Lines in a hearing on air transportation. Richard Anderson told lawmakers that he opposed a plan to limit flights at New York's busy John F. Kennedy Airport. AP has more on his testimony and on Bush's plans.
Posted at 2:30 PM
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Bush Administration, President Bush
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