FAA chief warns airlines: Don’t overschedule at congested airports

In an unusually stern warning delivered during a speech last week, outgoing FAA Administrator Marion Blakey suggested that if airlines don’t stop scheduling too many flights in crowded airports, the federal government might step in and force them to cut back their operations. She said the FAA has been doing its part by coming up with revised traffic control procedures and routings, like the agency’s new airspace plan in the New York-New Jersey area that should reduce delays by 20 percent over the next few years. But she said that even with the agency’s best efforts, “I predict passengers will continue to be fed up with delays, and that’s got to be taken more seriously by our airlines. No, you can’t control Mother Nature…but airlines can control their own schedules. Competitive pressures or no, an airline’s on-time performance increasingly matters and will be under increasing scrutiny.”


Blakey criticized airlines for “scheduling practices that are at times out of line with reality.” And she cautioned that “if the airlines don’t address this voluntarily, don’t be surprised when the government steps in.” She said that the FAA’s decision to order schedule reductions by the major carriers at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport “was not my happiest hour, but it could come to that on the East Coast as well.” Blakey said increasing traffic from business jets and general aviation flyers was also contributing to the problem, and warned that their practices “need to change as well. Flying to and from wherever you want whenever you want is not a free utility – You need to expect to pay for it.”