Friday, May 19, 2006
New runway in Atlanta may reduce
delays
BY DANIEL YEE
The Associated Press
ATLANTA - As a
business traveler who flies 100,000 miles a year on Delta Air Lines, Jay Spencer
is used to flying through the world's busiest hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta
International Airport.
As a result, he's very familiar with the airport's
infamous delays - anything, he says, lasting from 15 minutes to three
hours.
"They say you don't go to heaven or hell without flying through
Atlanta," said the 45-year-old real estate investor from Salt Lake
City.
Thanks to a new 9,000-foot runway scheduled to open in Atlanta on
May 27, the airport's officials are pledging to cut those delays in half, which
also could mean fewer and shorter delays throughout the entire air
transportation network in the United States and possibly around the
world.
That's because no other airport in the world handles more
passengers. Nearly 86 million people pass through the Atlanta airport each year
on more than 980,000 flights - one taking off or landing about every 30 seconds.
They fly direct to 157 cities in the U.S. and 65 others in 43 different
countries.
"You take an airplane delay at Hartsfield - 20 minutes - now
it's delayed at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago," said Terry Trippler,
an airline industry expert for Cheapseats.com. "If an airline cancels a flight,
there's no place to put the people - you can't move them to another flight
because those flights are filled."
The runway is part of a major overhaul
at the airport that also includes the tallest air traffic control tower in North
America, standing at 398 feet, and an "end-around" taxiway - the first of its
kind in the country - that will help keep arriving flights from being delayed by
having to wait to cross busy runways before reaching their gates.
The
airport's new fifth runway and a new runway monitor system will help it bring in
three different streams of planes at the same time, even during foul weather.
The reduced delays should reduce operating costs for airlines by an estimated
total of $5 million a week, said Ben DeCosta, the airport's general
manager.
"If you're flying in Atlanta, your plane won't be asked to
delay," DeCosta said. "You'll be brought in because we'll have room for
you."
The airline set to benefit the most is Delta Air Lines, which uses
airport as its primary hub and is looking any savings it can get as it works to
pull out of bankruptcy. Delta and its subsidiaries account for nearly three out
of every four flights at Hartsfield-Jackson.
Air traffic has gotten so
congested at the Atlanta airport that a quarter of all scheduled flights are
delayed - ranking fourth worst among the nation's major airports, according to
federal Bureau of Transportation statistics. And the average delay in Atlanta
runs 17 minutes, said airport spokeswoman Felicia Browder.
While the
statistics show that most of the delays are blamed on bad weather, the smallest
storms can cause major delays when there's limited runway space, Browder
said.
With the goal of curbing delays, the airport spent five years and
$1.284 billion to build its new runway, the most expensive ever built in the
United States. The runway's costs are mainly paid for through airport passenger
fees included in the ticket price of every flight that travels through the
airport along with $179 million from the federal government.
To celebrate
the runway's opening, the airport is throwing a party with country music bands
and a 5K race on the runway itself - all before planes start landing on it, of
course.
However, some expects say a lack of runways isn't what's delaying
flights.
"We can build runways and we should. But 50 percent of the
benefit of the runway is totally negated by the fact we have an air traffic
control system that's still back in the 1970s," said Mike Boyd, an airline
industry consultant based in Evergreen, Colo.
Boyd said larger problems
are leading to air travel delays, and they are beyond one airport's reach. He
said upgrading the U.S. air traffic control system's equipment and getting more
air traffic controllers in airport towers would have a much bigger
impact.
And you still can't ignore the weather. With Atlanta's fifth
runway, airlines will receive "a little more runway space - but you can't
control the weather," said Theresa Downs, 59, of Tacoma, Wash., who was
traveling through Atlanta earlier this month on a flight to Frankfurt,
Germany.
The runway's high price tag included $390 million to acquire 920
acres for it, leveling entire office parks, neighborhoods and churches in the
process. Another $160 million was spent on creating an 18-lane bridge and tunnel
because the new runway intersects Interstate 285, the highway that loops around
Atlanta's perimeter. It took another $350 million just to flatten the land for
the runway, DeCosta said.
The Federal Aviation Administration had to
build an air traffic control tower tall enough for controllers to see the new
runway and the rest of the airport, which is spread over more than seven square
miles. The new $44.2 million tower is the third tallest in the world, behind
airports in Bangkok, Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Delays create
enormous pressure on airlines, which have been recently flying at record loads
of 90 percent or more while trying to turn profits. Trippler said if the steps
being taken at the Atlanta airport are successful in curbing delays, the
struggling airline industry will benefit, especially bankrupt
Delta.
"This runway could not be opening at a better time," Trippler
said. "Now it is more critical than ever to keep those airplanes on
time."
Summary Box: Atlanta runway
WAITING: Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport has been plagued with delays that affect a quarter
of the 980,000 takeoffs and landings each year. The average delay is 17
minutes.
MORE RUNWAY: Airport officials say a new 9,000 foot, $1.284
billion-runway that will open on May 27 will help cut those delays by half and
save airlines a total of $5 million a week.
LESS DELAY: Analysts say the
runway will provide some help in reducing delays but a greater problem is
upgrading the nation's air traffic control equipment and maintaining proper
staffing. Passengers say nothing can be done to change the weather, which is
responsible for most of Atlanta's delays.
On The
Net:
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport: http://www.atlanta-airport.com
On-Time
Arrival Performance of airports:
http://www.bts.gov/programs/airline_information/airline_ontime_tables/2006_03/html/table_03.html