Also:
FAA Management Failures
Year After Year

Think Nothing's Changed?
You're Right. Let's Go Back
To Year 2000

The Boyd Group, Inc.
Advisors to the Aviation Industry
Since 1984

78 Beaver Brook Canyon Road
Evergreen, Colorado, 80439
303-674-2000
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aviation-info@aviationplanning.com

The Boyd Group Advantage

The Real Cause of Airline Flight Delays
The FAA's Mis-Management of ATC
A Threat To The National Economy
A Threat To Safety

• Fact: Chicago/O'Hare, JFK, Los Angeles and other large airports are not "over scheduled." The FAA's air traffic control system has not been updated to meet the nation's needs, thereby constricting capacity.
  
• Fact: The problem with air carrier delays is not primarily with the airline industry.
  
• Fact: The US Air Traffic Control system is outdated, understaffed, and mis-managed. It is the major cause of delays.
  
• Fact: Virtually every necessary upgrade to the ATC system is behind schedule, over cost estimates, and mis-managed. Worse, the FAA is not above simply "re-benchmarking" an overdue program, setting a new date for completion, and telling the world the project is "on time." That type of management is precisely the reason many of today's airline flights aren't on time.

The indisputable fact is that the FAA has failed time and again to implement the upgrades the nation needs to manage the growth in air traffic. Our air traffic control system is a national embarrassment.

Today, instead of working to meet the nation's growth, the FAA is calling for a contraction in the size and capacity of the air transportation system to meet the laggard expansion of the ATC system. Today, they have simply re-branded the past programs, calling it "NextGen" and claiming it's a whole new approach.

It is not a case of not having the resources, technology or funding. All three have been lavishly made available to the Federal Aviation Administration. All three have been consistently squandered by poor leadership, inept management, and an entrenched bureaucracy that has a track record of failure.

The result has been an ATC system that has increasingly fallen behind the needs of the air transportation system.  Not only does this harm the economy and bring higher costs to the consumer, but it also affects safety. In fact, there have been a number of fatal accidents over the past 20 years that are directly-related to ATC failures.

FAA: The Job Isn't Getting Done.

Take a look back over the past decade of the FAA's "leadership" in ATC programs. It isn't pretty.

You'll find that the successive FAA Administrators have accomplished little more Oscar-winning performances, announcing ATC program after program, committee after committee, restructuring after restructuring. And it's all been an act. A virtuoso performance that wastes billions, and has produced little in the way of better ATC efficiency.

Yes, the FAA will angrily respond that they have made great progress. True, if you consider wasting money and doing PR stunts as "progress."

Let's Dumb The System Down To Their Level

Today, the invoice has arrived for the FAA's decades-long gross incompetence.

Their bailing-wire ATC system has not grown and expanded, despite billions of dollars spent and dozens of lame excuses from a dynasty of politically-appointed FAA Administrators. Because the ATC system is so inefficient, and has been so poorly managed, it can no longer handle the air traffic volume the nation is generating. So, instead of admitting its failure and addressing it, the FAA is trying to make the air transportation system constrict to meet the inability of the FAA to do its job, such as demanding that airlines reduce schedules into Chicago/O'Hare.

Note this: Reducing flights at ORD - or any other airport - won't solve the problem. It addresses only a symptom. Next year, the FAA may well demand reductions at other airports, only because it is incapable of doing its job.

But give them some credit. FAA Administrator Blakey and the DOT Secretary have pulled off a huge PR coup. They've convinced the public and a gullible media that it's the airline industry that's screwing up the skies by meeting the public's legitimate need for air travel. The truth is that it's the FAA that's failed over a period of years to provide the infrastructure needed for a growing air transportation system, yet they've successfully shifted the blame.

Former Enron executives must be smiling from their prison cells. The recent performances over the years by Mineta, Blakey and Garvey, blaming airlines for airline delays, not to mention acting as if they had no responsibility whatsoever, rings close to some of the lame and dishonest excuses made by these pirates of private industry. The only difference is that bureaucrats like Norman Mineta, Jane Garvey, and now Blakey have not only been getting away with it, they are being painted as tough heroes, taking on a nasty airline industry that is intent on keeping passengers trapped on delayed flights.

The Forbidden Question

Note to the media: It's the DOT Secretary - now Mary Peters - and Blakey who have some answering to do. It's the FAA that's gotten billions to upgrade the ATC system and has squandered it year after year. It's the FAA that is messing up O'Hare and the rest of the air transportation system by having failed to implement planned capacity improvements to the air traffic control system.

The proof is simple. If you reporters are interested in some fun, the next time Peters and Blakey do one of their stand-up routines in front of the cameras, ask them the question they won't answer in clear direct English:

"Air traffic, in terms of planes in the sky, is just beginning to return to year 2000 levels. Why is the FAA's ATC system is still unable to meet the nation's needs of five years ago?"

The response will be emphatic gobbledy-gook intended to convince the reporter that he or she as a mere mortal cannot begin to comprehend the complexity of the matter.

The truth is that most reporters, and most of the public, cannot begin to comprehend the depth of the FAA's ineptitude. It's aimless, and has wasted billions. And it's bullet-proof from accountability.

But that's how the game works in Washington.

It goes like this: Congress gets mad about the FAA and demands answers. The FAA Administrator marches in, reads a prepared statement, telling the C-Span cameras how hard the Agency is working, and outlines the many acronym programs the FAA's working on. Then he or she takes a couple of soft-ball milquetoast questions, and leaves.

And nothing ever happens.

Okay, Let's Get To The Facts

What's A "Delay" Anyway?

Let's start with the definition of "delay."

Guess what - there really isn't any official time when a given flight should arrive. The FAA talks about "delays" as if there is a federally-produced timetable to which airlines must adhere. There's no such animal.

Officially, a "delay" is defined as when a flight is more than 15 minutes beyond the schedule published by the airline. There is no "standard" time between any points - the airlines determine how long it will take, and that varies by airline, by time of day, by marketing strategy, and a host of other issues.

Furthermore, because of the FAA's inept ATC system, airlines are scheduling more time into their flights, knowing that the system will often not allow direct routings, or will involve ATC holds or flight slow-downs.

In effect, then, most flights are "delayed" even when they arrive on schedule, because the system does not allow them to fly as efficiently as they can. (The solution's Free Flight. The FAA's efforts at creating a Free Flight environment - which are a direct result of the Congressional hearings prompted by our 1994 study - is an attempt to make it work using the current approach to ATC, and is doomed to failure.)

Two Hard Facts Regarding The FAA

Here's a couple of flashes for the media types who have dutifully and unknowingly regurgitated the dishonest, fact-less and feckless nonsense put out by Marion Blakey and the DOT.

Delays Are Due To FAA Failures To Meet
The Nation's Needs In Upgrading ATC Systems

Start with this. The main cause of delays is the decades-long inability of the FAA to construct an ATC system that meets the demands of the air transportation system. The ATC system is not a static set-piece to which we must adjust our aviation system. Instead, it is a vital part of our infrastructure which the FAA has repeatedly failed to keep updated.

Don't believe them when they babble about all the programs they're working on. If a good reporter checks it out, the chances are he or she will find that most of those programs are significantly delayed, and/or have major on-going technical problems.

More nonsense reporters should question are FAA claims about weather and "over-scheduling" being causes of delays.

No, it's not weather. It's the outright failures of the FAA to implement ATC upgrades that allow the system to handle weather. No, it's not "over-scheduling" - it's the repeated failures of the FAA to meet their own deadlines in producing an ATC system that can handle traffic volumes that have been forecast for years.

Get this, media: Despite what Blakey would have you believe, all these airplanes going into O'Hare and JFK and other large airports are not being scheduled by nincompoop airlines just for the yucks and grins of having dozens of their $30 million assets tied up in long delays waiting to get into or out of the airport.

Get this: those airplanes are essentially full - yes, full of people who what to go somewhere. Both American and United, the hubbing airlines at ORD, have load factors in the mid-80% range. In the real world (one that Blakey and this Administration only visit as tourists) that means the flights are full.

Get this, media - those "regional jets" that the FAA may claim to be gumming up the skies are providing levels of air transportation that would be impossible with out them. There are dozens of communities - large and small - that would have less, or even zero, air service without the small jets the FAA may target to be taken out of the system.

Memo To Mary Peters: Ain't no way Lansing, or Peoria, or Fort Wayne can support "bigger jets" - the reason is something called economic realities. Ms. Peters, you and your sidekick Blakey are embarrassments - you know little about the air transportation system, and you're protecting your own failures by demanding that American consumers have fewer options, mainly because you can't do your jobs.

Fact: The FAA's Responsibility Is NOT To Eliminate Delays.
It's To Assure ATC Can Meet The Nation's Growing Needs
Without Incurring Delays

The press conferences put on by Blakey show how she have no concept of her own responsibilities. The job of the FAA is to assure that the nation's air transportation system has the infrastructure to support economic growth. Instead, Blakey wants the air transportation system to adjust to the ineptitude of their federal agency.

Note to the media. The programs necessary to upgrade ATC are delayed by periods of years because of the FAA. It's not rocket science, and it's not wishful thinking. Unfortunately the FAA has been unable to implement these programs, mainly due to lack of leadership and poor project management.

And, despite what the FAA may say, it's not money. Before you print their poor-mouth comments, we'd suggest you independently check the record. The FAA has consistently wasted billions over the past 25 years, often on programs that only get so far and are then cancelled. And most of their major projects end up way over original cost estimates. Examples are shown below.

Congress has given the FAA billions. The FAA has wasted it.

Let's Check The Record

One of the main reasons for the inability of the ATC system to meet the nation's needs is that the entire upgrade system is run by, directed by, and advised by a highly sophisticated Bubba-Group of insiders. One might think airlines would be raising the roof, given the billions ATC incompetence costs them annually. (Note - it's over $2 billion at United - imagine how far that'd go getting them out of bankruptcy.)

But it doesn't work that way. On one hand, airlines cannot criticize the FAA - the retribution can be nasty. And usually the Airline/FAA ATC liaison committees degenerate into mutual admiration societies that move in lock step with the FAA's march to nowhere.

The only way this can change is installing professional, accountable management at the top of the FAA. Silly "private-public" oversight committees, or "performance-based" hogwash that's come out of the FAA over the past ten years have done nothing.

Examples of FAA/ATC Upgrade Failures

Here are just three of the major ATC upgrade programs that the FAA is botching on a varsity level

ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) 

An air-to-air, air-to-ground communications, navigation and surveillance system that uses GPS. It is supposed to continuously keep track of positions of aircraft and surface vehicles (like at airports.) It would precisely track where vehicles in the air and on the ground are, along with their identification, position, altitude, velocity and direction, updated every second.

Benefit to System: Would give controllers enormously enhanced information on where moving objects are, where they will be, and that gives them the ability to better use both the airways and facilities on the ground. This is particularly true in bad weather. This would be an enormous capacity upgrade, not to mention safety upgrade. It would permit the system to work much more efficiently.

Original cost estimate:    $215 million.  

Latest published cost estimate: $268 million (25% over, but that's peanuts compared to other programs.)

Original Deployment Schedule:   2001

Latest Published Deployment Schedule: 2012. (That's not a typo. A whopping eleven years beyond their original plan.) This says volumes about a) the FAA's ability to plan, b) the FAA's ability to implement, c) the FAA's basic project management skills (i.e., non-existent), and d) how the FAA's pronouncements are not to be trusted.

Interesting Point. All is not bad news with ADS-B. By 2003, they did have it allegedly up and running at one airport. Bethel, Alaska. Apparently the moose lobby carries a lot of influence in Washington.

Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS)

Benefit To System: Integrates weather info from a number of sources to give controllers a graphical picture of weather that they can use immediately to better plan and control air space, particularly at airports prone to high incidents of thunderstorm and other "convective" weather events. This would help the ATC system better use available air space, thereby reducing delays due to such weather.

Original cost estimate: $276 million.

Latest published estimate: $286 million. (But there's catch, which is typical of the FAA's propensity to hide gigantic failures. See, the original estimate was for installation of 37 of these systems at airports across the nation. The latest estimate is bogus because the "FAA is re-evaluating how many systems it will procure..."  In other words, the new estimate could be for three systems instead of 37. Or, one.  Making estimates like this - a cost without knowing what it will produce - would get a CEO fired at a public company. At the FAA, it's SOP.)

Original Deployment Schedule:   2003.

Latest Published Deployment Schedule: 2008. Five years and counting, and no hard plan on what "deployment" is. It's "under review." It is one airport? Ten? Standby for further FAA updates.

Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS)

Benefit To System: LAAS is intended to be an augmentation of the GPS system that would allow all weather precision approaches to airports.

Original cost estimate:    $539 million.   (For 143 installed systems)

Latest published cost estimate: $696 million. For 160 systems. But here again the FAA is fudging. The actual number is "under review" - in FAA-speak, plan on a lot fewer for the same or more money.)

Original Deployment Schedule: 2002 for Category (CAT) One system. 2005 For CAT 2 & 3 System.

Latest Published Deployment Schedule: Late again in the Big Time. It will be "limited" deployment (Read: nowhere near the 160 airports the $696 million was supposed to buy.) The CAT 2 & 3 program is now just a "R&D Program" - meaning that it's on a back burner.)

The Truth: it isn't weather that's the major cause of delays, as the FAA claims. More correctly, it's the ATC system's inability to deal with weather. A large part of the reason is that programs like this are so far behind the Bureaucratic Eight-Ball.

Who Are We?
We're The Ones Who Blew The Whistle.
And Prompted Congressional Hearings

We have participated in accomplishing a number of independent ATC studies, one of which prompted congressional hearings on the subject.

As a proud non-member of the Washington inner-circle of consultants, The Boyd Group has candidly stated the facts, regardless of political correctness. This has not made us a lot of friends at the top of the FAA, but it has gained us something many of those consultants have not earned. It's called respect.

We and RMB Associates wrote the first comprehensive non-government analysis of the problems of the ATC system. Free Flight - Re-Inventing Air Traffic Control was first issued in June of 1994.

The FAA looked down their cost-overrun noses at our study. Why, if it came from outside the Beltway, it couldn't have much value. Naturally, the usual suspects in the consulting industry, the ones with their snoots in the bottomless FAA money trough, chimed in that the whole concept in our study - Free Flight - was fantasy.

But some people in congress disagreed. Because of our study, hearings were held. Because of those hearings, the concept of Free Flight was brought into the forefront of aviation discussion. Because of our study, today, Free Flight is a factor - albeit mismanaged - in the FAA's alleged ATC upgrade program.

In front of congress in 1994 we said that the FAA had proven that it had no leadership and was inept in managing the ATC system. We then backed it up with facts, buttressed by a large number of reports done by the GAO and others.

After that, Free Flight suddenly became a trendy issue. Perhaps one of the best complements paid to The Boyd Group and RMB Associates was when a few weeks later the Chairman of American Airlines wrote an editorial on Free Flight. Before that, he probably thought Free Flight was Aeroflot's frequent flyer program. A few weeks later, one of those very consulting firms who sneered at our study announced they were having a conference on Free Flight. Now that it was safe and non-controversial, they were on the bandwagon.

Today, a decade later, not much has changed, however.

Same Plot, Same Players. No Progress

We've been on the forefront of the ATC issue for over a decade, and when we say that not much has been done, we can prove it. The following link takes you to a page covering analyses done over seven years ago of the FAA's ATC problems. They are long, but for those interested, they can illuminate just what a blast of hot air is coming from Mineta and Blakey.

These two are the ones who have failed, and the results will be that many of the congress members who have given them "a walk" are going to find that mode of transportation will move up a notch in their districts when ATC causes the local airport to lose service.

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The FAA Management Has Spouted The Same Dishonest Jive For Years.
Note That The FAA Administrator Is Singing The Same Tune One Year Later...

From The Hot Flash May 30 2005
The FAA Administrator Tells Airlines:
We're Inept. So, Delays Are All Your Fault.

"Plan on delays this summer..."

That, in various forums and in various venues, has been the message over the past week from Marion Blakey, the latest political appointee to run the FAA.

Unfortunately, she may be right. Matter of fact, make book on it. Blakey's comments about delays have the same rock-solid credibility of John Gotti issuing a press release predicting an increase in racketeering. That's because it's her ATC system that's Public Enemy #1 when it comes to airline delays.

The Stockholm Syndrome Lives. It's astounding how the airline industry can, on one hand, be so focused on trying to cut costs, and on the other hand actually encourage and support the bureaucrats like Blakey, who are responsible for unnecessarily jacking up airline operating costs by as much as $5 billion to $8 billion annually.

We're talking, of course, about the FAA's continuing air traffic control scandal.

Yes, scandal. The mis-management of the ATC system has wasted billions of dollars over the past twenty years, missed more schedule deadlines than the Italian rail system, and has inflicted billions of dollars in losses on the airline industry. The FAA has not only failed to do the job it's paid to do, but it literally gets away with screw-up after ATC screw up, and it appears that the airline industry just cowers in sycophant fear.

This is not opinion, it's fact. This is a naked scandal. A government agency takes money, squanders it, and the result is an air transportation system that is unnecessarily constricted, and nowhere nearly as safe as it could be. The cost overruns and failures to complete projects at the FAA are every bit as dishonest and scandalous as if the money was siphoned off into a Swiss bank account.

No, on second thought, it's worse than that. At least there would be some ability to recoup the dough if it went into secret accounts in Zurich. In the case of the FAA mismanagement of ATC upgrades, the money has instead been wasted on vendors and others who, a) can't be prosecuted for failure to perform, and b) have no accountability whatsoever. For a schematic of the current status - or lack of same - regarding ATC upgrade programs, take a look at what the GAO found last month:

Lovely, isn't it? It's a scorecard of failure, yet Blakey speaks to conferences with a straight face, demanding more money, more resources and more "commitment" from the aviation industry. Controllers, understaffed as it is, are stuck using yesterday's equipment to handle today's aviation system.

This same schematic can be pulled up for the past five years, and you'll find virtually every program has continued to deteriorate in terms of cost and implementation schedule. Things are not getting better. They're getting worse.

Lots Of History. Not Much FAA Action. Back in 1994, The Boyd Group and RMB Associates did the first independent study on the mess represented by the FAA's management of air traffic control. It succeeded in prompting Congressional hearings, and it was our work that brought the term "Free Flight" into the open forum of aviation discussion.

In that analysis, we determined that unnecessary inefficiencies in the ATC system inflicted $5 billion in excess operating costs on the airline industry. That figure was conservative, as internal studies done by United Airlines indicated costs to UA alone were around $1 billion.

That was a decade ago, when jet fuel cost a third of what it does today. Other than press releases and lots of bureaucratic puff, very little fundamentally has been accomplished by the FAA since then in regard to substantively upgrading the air traffic control system. The chart shown above proves it.

Now comes the FAA Administrator, brazenly warning that this summer will see peak traffic, and lots of delays. So, according to her, we'd all just better get used to it.

Naturally, a lot of aviation reporters have breathlessly parroted this garbage as if it were an unquestioned weather report direct from God. Gee, it did come from the FAA Administrator, didn't it? That means it must be so.

That means that it's likely to be a truckload of political effluent. She's successfully sidetracked the media from finding the truth: the delays are due to her Agency's failure to do its job.

Well, time for some truth.

The Summer Traffic Crush Fallacy. The FAA Administrator is trying to imply that because sooooo many more people will be flying this summer, the system will be at capacity. Two truths here.

Truth One: The only system that may be "at capacity" is the continually mis-managed and understaffed air traffic control system. The FAA's grand plan to avoid delays centers on constricting air transportation to the capacity of an ATC system that's at least a decade behind where it should be.

Truth Two: The FAA's implication that "more people flying means more delays" is nothing more than trendy nonsense. They know better. See, for the most part, flights are already full, and have essentially been that way for months. When carriers report load factors in the high 70% to mid 80% range, that means that the airplanes that are flying during the hours when people want to travel are full. Chocka-block. Jammed up. There isn't much room in coach for this assumed additional wave of summer travelers. Airlines have already been full for months.

But, There Will Be More Flight Delays. The FAA Administrator is accurate when she says flight delays may hit record levels this summer. She ought to know.

As a result of Blakey's carefully-worded press machine, the media has assumed that it's just a matter of too many people going out to the airport. "Crowded airports point to more summer delays," has been the gist of nudnik stories from lightweight journalists ever since the FAA issued its dire warning. The FAA has succeeded in inoculating itself from any blame for what may be a messy summer travel season.

One Thunder-Boomer, And ORD Becomes A Refugee Camp. Here's a fact that most journalists miss. More airplanes, not more passengers, is what flummoxes the ATC system. But airlines are not adding substantial numbers of additional flights, so what'll cause all these delays that the Administrator is worrying about?

One word: Weather. Specifically, thunderstorms. See, because Blakey (and her political-appointee predecessors at the FAA) have failed to accomplish the job of properly upgrading the ATC system, we're stuck in the 1970s. As we noted above, the programs and projects that were intended to allow controllers to handle weather more effectively are mostly way behind schedule and billions over cost estimate - so much so that the GAO recently reported that the FAA's ATC program is barely keeping up with today, let alone planning for the future. Not only that, but the GAO noted that some of these upgrades are so far behind that they may be obsolete by the time they get installed.

So, when a line of thunderstorms sets up shop 60 miles west of ORD, controllers may have no choice but to shut down all or most westbound departures from that airport - simply because they have not been given the tools they need - and the nation needs - to handle the situation.

So live with it. The airline industry can look forward to billions in higher costs simply because the FAA's ATC system has been and continues to be mis-managed.

Depending on how Mother Nature plays it, next few months could be a mess. But whatever you do, don't buy into the lie that it's passenger volume that's the reason. It'll be due to years of shoddy leadership at the top of the FAA. Nevertheless, plan on Blakey and company getting a free ride from any accountability. Titles, not job performance, dictate how folks in Washington view senior bureaucrats.

And meanwhile the airline industry continues to sink in red ink.

Final Note: The Boyd Group has been at the forefront of this ATC issue for over a decade. For more information on this scandal and what needs to be done, take a look at a presentation that reflects our comments at the National Chamber of Commerce Conference in Washington.

These comments were made at a gathering also attended by the FAA Administrator and key FAA staff. Unlike most consultants, we tell it like it is, and have no fear of defending our points. Click Here.

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Think Nothing's Changed?
You're Right

Let's go back. Way back, to March 2000. Yessir, President Clinton, just prior to losing his law license for lying under oath, was on the consumer warpath to eliminate airline delays. Here's a rundown. If there's any doubt that the current babble about fixing the ATC system should be categorized with selling swampland in Arabia, this should help.

Hot Flash, Monday, March 13, 2000:

Cooperating With Your Captors

Let the delay-weary flying public beware. Apparently, at least two airline CEOs have become latter-day Patty Hearsts.

You remember, back in the 70's, Patty was the rich kid abducted by terrorists, and who then actually decided to join their movement, rollicking around the country, robbing banks and doing other fun terrorist stuff in the name of goodness and justice.

Today, the FAA's ATC system is terrorizing US airlines and their passengers with failing equipment, unsafe direction, and incompetent management. Yet, it appears that at least two airline CEOs have been convinced to come over to the Dark Side, willingly aiding and abetting their tormentors. Instead of fighting to reform the FAA, they've effectively joined it. Kinda like Patty.

The pictures from Clinton's ATC press conference hearken back to the famous one published of Patty in the 1970s. There she was, machine gun in hand, defiantly poised before the SLA terrorist's symbol, which looked vaguely like a logo for some brand of laxative.

But it wasn't Patty in the picture this time.

The press photos this time were just as shocking. There stood Clinton. Next, looking up with near-romantic eyes, was the Rodster himself, our DOT Secretary. On the other side of the President stood Jane Garvey. And right behind them, smiling and enthusiastically nodding their heads in support of the most corrupt and dishonest President in recent history, were Patty Hearst #1, and Patty Hearst #2, a.k.a. Don Carty of American, and Leo Mullin of Delta.

The media just swooned. AP and others took picture after picture to convince us that all is well, and, of course, not a tough question left their lips.

In this Administration Politics, Not Safety, Is Job One... First, let's review the substance of Clinton's speech. Unfortunately, there wasn't any substance. "If we can guide the space shuttle into orbit and back," Clinton oozed, "we ought to be able to guide planes around thunderstorms." It's the same pap that Jane Garvey spewed out last August, which was that the "high tech" center in Herndon will centralize control of ATC decision making when bad weather affects the system. Sooo important, she claimed back then. Yet the Administration has waited six months to turn this sham into an election-year photo-op. Six months. Politics are far more important to this Administration than safety.

Weather, they tell us, is the biggest cause of delays. Unfortunately, that is technically a lie.

Centralized or not - it's still a broken system. And that's the scandal. This press conference was a cover up. A carefully-orchestrated attempt to make the public believe that ATC delays are mostly the result of weather.

The problem is the ATC system's inability to deal with weather. In other words, the system doesn't work. At a time when ATC operational errors are up 14%, and equipment failures that inflict flight delays on airlines are up 34%, airline CEOs should be going bonkers on Garvey, not pandering to her at press conferences. Concentrating decision-making to one location is okay, but they'll still be dependent upon failing equipment and incompetent patronage FAA management.

A billion bucks down the tube, and these guys do a photo-op.... Of course, Mullin and Carty should know better. Between the two of them, their companies are bleeding over a billion dollars annually because of the ATC system, and yet this media sham is what they determined to be a "solution." They know full well that this is little more than a bucket brigade on the Titanic.

Can't fool all the people all the time... Indeed, a lot of folks know this too. On Aviation Week's website, over 80% of respondents to an informal poll believed that this plan wouldn't work. That's a no brainer, because almost all of the FAA's grand ATC schemes have been failures.

While "cooperation" with the FAA sounds like a nice option, the fact is that you cannot solve a problem by "cooperating" with it. And the FAA IS the problem.

More action, less PR... It is time for airline industry CEOs like Carty and Mullin to demand real solutions. And that means foregoing the happy-face media stunts like this. Neither of these executives would tolerate a VP whose department constantly wasted money with no results. But they'll prance right up there next to Jane Garvey for a photo-op, the same woman responsible for an FAA that loads a billion dollars annually in extra costs to their airlines. Clearly, they've joined forces with the problem. It's the FAA that needs to get fixed. ATC is but a symptom.

If the ATC system is to be fixed (or, more correctly, completely replaced) CEOs must have the leadership to demand better than to become photo mannequins for shows like this. But that means, as we stated to Congress in 1994, standing up, not sucking-up to the FAA.

Meanwhile, back in the real world... Almost at the same time that Clinton was babbling in front of the cameras with his eager CEO sidekicks behind him, the real problem was again demonstrated tragically in Florida:

"TWO SMALL PLANES COLLIDE ON RUNWAY - Two Small planes collided on the
runway (Bradenton, FL) in a huge fireball Thursday, killing all four people on board. The single-engine planes, a Cessna 152 and a Cessna 172, carried two people each. No one else was hurt. A controller had cleared one of the planes for takeoff. At the same time, the pilot of the other plane was granted permission to hold on the same runway."

This is happening all over the country, putting passengers at risk. "Cooperating" with this FAA is not the answer.

(c) 2000 - 2007, The Boyd Group/ASRC, Inc. All Rights Reserved

 

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