As flying has become as routine and popular as driving, it's developed a key connection with the auto world. Think traffic jam.
Sadly for those in the metro area, and those arriving from all over the country and world, Kennedy Airport has become the poster child for congestion. It's on the roads, in the terminals, on the tarmac and even in the skies all around it.
For many, the question has become urgent: is there any way to improve the situation? In my colleague James Bernstein's story, you'll see that the federal government is trying, but others have their own ideas of how to help. So even the drawing board of change for the airport is in gridlock.
Misery loves company, so it may help to know that JFK passengers aren't alone. Here are some articles about congestion at Kennedy and other airports, and what's being done:
http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/jfk_flight_reductions/
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/mcgee/2007-10-31-avoiding-holiday-delays_N.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/11/airlines.scheduling/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/july-dec07/delays_08-07.html
And here's a fascinating web site where the Federal Aviation Administration shows you delay information in real time at airports around the country.
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp
--Noel Rubinton
Comments (2)
The Attila (TM) Alternative: How to Reduce Delays Without FAA-Imposed Caps and Cuts in New York Airport Activity
There exists an immediately available alternative by which to address present industry delays, cost and revenue challenges, a far more elegant solution than FAA's proposed "blunt instrument" cuts and caps on New York airport arrival/departure activity.
The Attila (TM) automated inflight arrivals sequencing tool (a service of ATH Group, http://www.athgrp.com/ ) allows airlines to actively manage arriving aircraft assets -- as Delta Air Lines has for the past year at Atlanta -- using their own unique business rules, reducing variance and creating a more orderly and deterministic stream of on-time arrivals to the terminal area.
The Attila-ordered arrivals stream reduces total enroute time, fuel burn, carbon/CO2 emissions and operating costs by accelerating the arrivals queue, by recapturing capacity that would otherwise "spoil", and by reducing "just in case" ground asset requirements including gates, ground service equipment and associated labor (savings to date: http://www.athgrp.com/_img/Attila_stats.gif ).
Attila benefits are both immediately realized -- as Delta has proven -- and extend forward into subsequent schedule planning cycles, compressing enroute times, driving down future operating costs and CAPEX.
With airline-specific instances of Attila restructuring inbound flow to their hubs/focus cities, and with a recognized industry data services provider serving as a "trusted broker" operating exchange server instances of Attila for multi-carrier airports like JFK, LGA and LAX, individual airlines and the industry collectively can address present industry cost and revenue challenges, including the current adverse cost impact on quality of variances that drive the spoilage of ATC/airport capacity and delays.
Consideration of Attila is particularly timely, in view of the ongoing FAA's New York scheduling meetings, and the potential for creeping re-regulation via mandated cuts/caps.
We see immediate opportunities in an analysis of capacity spoilage at the New York/New Jersey airports, and by combining the Attila sequencing process with available dispatch and departure solutions, an ability for Attila to mitigate the impact of both outbound and inbound delays.
With FAA "NEXTGEN" benefits not arriving for perhaps 15-20 years, Attila is the available active asset management tool for today, and for decades to come.
Good old fashioned congestion pricing would solve all aspects of the problems- multi-modally.