The Big Story: Unused military air space to help ease flight congestion

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ahead of the holiday travel crunch, President Bush ordered steps Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded.

The most significant change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create “a Thanksgiving express lane” for commercial airliners. It will be open next week for five days — Wednesday through Sunday — for the busiest days of Thanksgiving travel.

Domestic carriers are expected to fly roughly 27 million passengers worldwide over 12 days beginning Nov. 16, with planes about 90 percent full, according to the Air Transport Association.

Officials said the chief benefit would be to speed takeoffs from New York airports, particularly during bad weather.

Bush called holiday travel “a season of dread for too many Americans.”

He said the problems with delayed flights are “clear to anybody who’s been traveling. Airports are very crowded. Travelers are being stranded and flights are delayed, sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours.

“These failures carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience they cause but in the business they obstruct and the family gatherings they cause people to miss,’ the president said. “We can do better.”

The plan also will be in effect for the Christmas travel season.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Federal Aviation Administration was imposing a holiday moratorium on nonessential maintenance projects, allowing all FAA personnel and equipment to be focused on keeping flights on time.

Further, the Department of Transportation will propose doubling the bump fee that airlines must pay to travelers who buy tickets but wind up without a seat. The penalty now is $200 or $400, depending on long the passenger has been inconvenienced. The proposed increase would make the fee $400 to $800. Perino said that rule, if it becomes final, wouldn’t be in place until next summer’s travel season.

Further, officials said the FAA would take other steps to increase efficiency such as rerouting airspace, using technology to fill unused space in the air and on the ground, and using more precise routes for takeoffs and landings.

Another proposed rule would make airlines liable for penalties for chronically delayed flights.

The president said other steps were under consideration to reduce crowded skies, such as charging airlines higher landing and takeoff fees at peak hours, and auctioning off landing and takeoff rights to the highest bidder.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters acknowledged that airlines would pass along to passengers some of the costs of the higher fees and penalties.

38 million to hit the road
From The Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Gas prices near record highs at a time of year when they typically decline will not deter drivers from hitting the road this Thanksgiving, AAA said Thursday.

The travel agency expects a record 38.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home over the five days beginning Nov. 21. That is a 1.6 percent increase over last year. Roughly 80 percent of those trips will be by car, and motorists will pay about 90 cents a gallon more for gas than they did last year.

Guy Caruso, chief of the Energy Department’s statistical division, the Energy Information Administration, predicted that gasoline prices, now averaging $3.11 a gallon nationwide, will rise another 10 cents by December.

A jump of 15 cents a gallon from current levels, already well above last year’s average of $2.23, also would surpass May’s all-time record of $3.23 a gallon.

Gas prices traditionally fall in the winter months as demand ebbs from summer highs, but oil prices flirting with $100 a barrel and low fuel stockpiles have reversed that trend this year. Still, demand for gasoline over the four weeks ending Nov. 9 was 0.6 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging more than 9.3 million barrels a day, the Energy Department said Thursday.

The average decrease in rental car prices is 12 percent, and airline tickets are down about 7 percent.