Tripling of Capacity for Air Traffic Is Sought

Tripling of Capacity for Air Traffic Is Sought

Published: January 28, 2004
 
 
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 — The secretary of transportation
called Tuesday for tripling the air traffic capacity
of the United States in the next 15 to 20 years to
make room for more jet taxis, private jets, airliner
traffic and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. 

The secretary, Norman Y. Mineta, said that air travel
was recovering from the terrorist attacks of 2001
because of improved security and a rebounding economy
and that new runways, control towers, air traffic
computers and other improvements were being added.
But, Mr. Mineta said, "the changes that are coming are
too big, too fundamental for incremental adaptations
of the infrastructure."

If the United States wants to retain global leadership
in aviation, he said, "we need to modernize and
transform our global transportation system, starting
right now."

In a speech to the Aero Club of Washington, an
aviation group, Mr. Mineta announced that he was
naming John J. Hamre, a former under secretary of
defense, to lead a research, engineering and
development advisory committee. The Federal Aviation
Administration is trying to improve coordination of
its work with the Pentagon, the Department of Commerce
and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
to develop technology to increase air traffic
capacity.

Before the terrorist attacks, the aviation agency had
been struggling to keep up with demand for air traffic
services, but the number of flights dropped sharply in
the following months. Now there are signs that the air
traffic capacity is becoming tight in some sites
again, partly because the number of passengers is
rebounding.

Another reason is the proliferation of smaller
commercial airplanes called regional jets, many
seating well under 100 people, which are supplanting
bigger planes. As a result, the number of flights has
grown faster than the level of passengers in some
places, so more planes are flying fewer passenger. 

"The passenger count is down, but we're about back to
where we were because of aircraft movements," said one
expert, Robert E. Robeson, the vice president for
civil aviation at the Aerospace Industries
Association, a trade group. 

The trend may continue, because the airlines were
having trouble filling all the seats on the bigger
planes, and the smaller jets use less fuel and are
generally flown by pilots who are paid less.

Mr. Robeson said that tripling the air traffic
capacity might be necessary, if point-to-point travel
in smaller airliners replaced hub-and-spoke systems.
And jet manufacturers are producing small engines that
could some day allow private planes to fly at airliner
altitudes, he said, a development that would require
more air traffic control services.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are pilotless airplanes now
used extensively by the Defense Department in war
zones, and the F.A.A. says it expects the aircraft may
be used for border patrol duties, inspecting power
lines and other domestic purposes. Because the
aircraft have no pilot, they require extra work by air
traffic controllers. 

Last week the F.A.A. announced that it had won an
agreement to reduce delays at O'Hare Airport in
Chicago by having American Airlines and United
Airlines, which both operate hubs there, reduce their
peak operations by 5 percent. Delays at O'Hare had
been building and causing delays around the country.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, the government restricted
operations at La Guardia Airport in New York because
of delays. But Mr. Mineta said Tuesday that rationing
airport use could not be a long-term action.

Mr. Mineta focused on one technology for increasing
capacity, satellite navigation, using the Global
Positioning System or related systems. That is more
precise than radar and allows planes to be flown
closer together without increased risk of midair
collision.


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