Summer fun on the tarmac
As I keep looking ahead to my cross-country weekend trip coming up, the thoughts of impending pain of my first plane flight in seven months is sadly doing its best to bring down my joy a notch or two. Lately, it really has been getting harder and harder to ignore all the recent publicity being given to the woes of air travel. Even overlooking the recent tragedies that have been occurring at Brazilian airports, the American air traffic system has been causing some major headaches nationwide and the stats are out to prove that it’s not just you who (or hopefully not me) who’s living the airport nightmare.
Today on their evening drive slot, Washington Post Radio hosted David Stempler of the
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/wtwpradio/index.html
Air Travelers Association to dig into the results of this horrid June, which saw cancelled flights at double what that month’s figures were for last year. I had been seeing the headlines, but this segment was my first chance to get a real feel on the situation. It seems that over 30% of flights arrive with a delay, and if we listeners didn’t need to be reminded, all that can be said is we just have to grin and bear it and hope that it doesn’t get worse, which is only too probable.
Stempler admits that the nation is suffering from a lack of runways, an increase in passengers, and…wait for it…a much outdated IT system. After some quick search requests and wading through all the unrelated airport security material I find myself at some answers with this oh-so-current article from National Defense Magazine
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2007/July/AirTrafficTech.h...
It turns out, the air traffic control system should have been set up to run via GPS satellites by 1997, but here in 2007 it’s still stuck as a ground-based operation and consequentially keeping us at a relative crawl in the skies. The currently proposed project that includes these satellite monitoring upgrades and over a dozen other programs is dubbed “Next Gen” and is believed to be a $22 billion investment, with roughly $2.5 billion in funds being asked for in 2008. As for dealing with future air traffic problems in the near-term, this project is mired in political and funding issues yet its urgency is punctuated by huge expansion figures for both commercial aircraft and also private jets owned in full (or fractionally)
by the newest surge of American multi-millionaires. Stempler estimates roughly 10,000 more such private jets in the skies by next year. With this current airport system we are stuck with, it will not matter the size or capacity of the plane as it still amounts to a blip on the radar and more collective waiting to reach your destination. Granted, there are plenty of people out there like me who just want some sunshine from another latitude, but your legislators hopefully also understand that the business need for reliable air travel is just too big a problem to ignore.
Developing Story: Air Traffic Control Contract Awarded
The initial phase for moving the nationwide air traffic control onto a satellite-based system is underway with a $1.8 billion dollar contract being awarded. The contract was won by ITT, in what was a surprising victory up against rivals Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Still, the efforts of the contract work won’t be noticeable until roughly 2020.
"ITT Awarded FAA Contract for Air-Traffic Control System"
And
"Overhaul of Air Traffic System Nears Key Step"
Author's follow-up
In a bit of a departure from my usual postings, I’ll present this worthy follow-up to the airline discussion. It seems that post has managed to not only jinx myself but brought my karmic comeuppance to all others aboard my recent flight across the U.S.
My intended two-stop trip proved to be the victim of summer storms and left me roughly 5 hours late to my destination:
This was clearly not your typical trip, with the added leg and delays at almost every juncture. I really do feel for those who required further connections that had to be completed another day. It seems that maybe this really is becoming more and more frequent of an occurrence. Lastly, the flight attendants really were commendable during the whole unfortunate adventure.
I am now officially a statistic.
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