Note: For our members getting the weekly Touch & Go™ vision letter, we covered this in more detail this week. I thought it might be a good idea to just touch on how the Department of Transportation has snatched a golden opportunity for public support from the jaws of success.
The FAA has forced United and American to reduce planned operations at O’Hare by over 18,000 between now and October. In this, several airports will not receive expected access to these carriers’ global connectivity, and others will see reductions.
A big economic hit.
On the surface, and according to protocol, this is the FAA’s job: assure that airlines don’t schedule flights beyond the ability of the air traffic control system to handle them. The assumption is that the ATC system is only reining in airlines with hyper-active scheduling departments, thereby enhancing safety and reducing delays and congestion.
Sounds really credible. But it’s a set of assumptions that are false.
Here’s The Real World. Airlines are in business to carry passengers. They manage their resources to make money doing so. Therefore, whatever flight levels that American and United had planned for O’Hare were ultimately based on making money. To be sure, there’s always a fair number of competitive objectives as well. But that only stimulates competition and consumer options.
The FAA ATC system exists to ensure that these airline operations are efficiently managed. It is not in place to be a de facto capacity traffic cop.
A Fresh Idea: Tell The Public The Facts. Here’s the post-agreement statement from FAA Administrator Bedford:
“We appreciate the airlines working together with us to reach a responsible level of operations that strengthens safety and delivers a more reliable travel experience for the American public.”
Saccharine goo, not straight talk. The more upfront and, frankly, honest comment that should have been issued:
“We regret that this operations cap needs to be implemented. Unfortunately, our air traffic control system simply is inadequate to handle such volume…
“….In fact, Secretary Duffy has on many occasions made this situation clear in his efforts to replace outdated and unreliable equipment, to hire sufficient controller staff, and get the funding we need to bring our ATC system into the future. In the meantime, we have no other option except to constrict flight operations to match the inadequacies of the current system. We apologize to the communities that are being adversely affected.”
The first statement is political misinformative jive. It implies that the problem is with the airlines, when Bedford knows full well that the ATC system he inherited is inadequate.
Since he and Duffy had no hand in creating this mess, it would be a perfect opportunity to educate the public and get them behind Duffy’s funding requests from Congress.
But, nah. Opportunity missed.
Not a good sign in light of four decades of bungled ATC programs.
