Continental Airlines CEO wants air traffic system updated Houston Chronicle - July 27, 1999

The U.S. air traffic control system isn't meeting the needs of airlines or airline passengers, Gordon Bethune, Continental Airlines' chairman and chief executive, said Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

His comments came as the industry seeks to show the public that carriers aren't responsible for all flight delays. Other airline executives have also spoken recently about air traffic control problems.

"I am here to tell you that gridlock is not a problem for the future; it is happening now, today, as we speak," Bethune said in prepared remarks for an Aero Club luncheon.

The Federal Aviation Administration needs the tools and resources to provide the right level of customer service, he said.

A 1 percent improvement in air traffic control efficiency would equal $200 million in annual savings in air and ground operations for the 10 major U.S. carriers, he said.

The industry's customer service performance has been under fire from some Washington lawmakers, and several "passenger rights" bills aimed at forcing carriers to treat passengers better have been proposed. The legislation appears to be dead at the moment, though, in the wake of the industry promising its own reforms.

Last week, the Air Transport Association, an industry trade group, petitioned the U.S. Transportation Department to "more fully disclose to the public the nature and source of the delay problems."

Airlines give on-time flight performance records to transportation officials, who in turn report the numbers to the public.

But the association said the government doesn't exempt flights experiencing air traffic control-related delays. The association wants such flight delays excluded or distinguished from delays occurring for other reasons.

In a recent speech, Jim Goodwin, United Airlines' chairman and chief executive, said United will never have the on-time record it wants unless the FAA ensures that its system keeps up with growth.

And last week, when American Airlines talked to reporters about its quarterly earnings, it said FAA equipment change-overs in Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York had hurt its bottom line.

American said it experienced 205 cancellations due to air traffic control problems in May 1998. The number jumped to 916 in May 1999.

An FAA spokesman said problems in a couple of places during equipment transitions have been corrected.

The FAA said that of delays not caused by airlines, 75 percent are weather-related, 3 percent are due to air traffic control equipment problems and 20 percent happen because air routes are too crowded.

Bethune called for fundamental management and financial reform of the air traffic control system, and said a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is a "critical first step."

Under the bill, $57 billion would be spent on aviation infrastructure from 2001 to 2004, and aviation ticket taxes would be dedicated to aviation improvements.

Much of the money would go toward runways and airport equipment and increasing the FAA's facilities and equipment budget by 45 percent. http://www.chron.com/content/story.html/business/305037

MORE ABOUT FAA:

Miami, Chicago, Philadelphia, Newark and NYC LaGuardia ARTS software problems http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0019NF

Update on STARS system http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00181a

FAA: All Systems Y2K-Compliant http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0017Oh

Airports resist new Tests - Doubtful planes will fly in U.S. January 1 http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00176z

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), July 28, 1999

Answers

Continental's CEO says skies already gridlocked REUTERS - July 27, 1999

WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - Continental Airlines CAL.N said Tuesday that the gridlock forecast for U.S. skies had already arrived and urged Congress to authorize more money for air traffic control improvements.

"I am here to tell you that gridlock is not a problem for the future, it is happening right now, as we speak," Continental Chairman and Chief Executive Gordon Bethune told the Aero Club of Washington.

Just last Friday, Bethune said, Continental had 222 aircraft delayed at New Jersey's Newark Airport. The average delay was 77 minutes and the maximum was 148 minutes.

On Sunday the situation was no better. With no real weather problem, the average delay was 82 minutes, the head of the fifth-largest U.S. carrier said.

Bethune said that crowding was not unique to Newark, a major hub airport for Continental. Federal Aviation Administration delays per thousand operations in the first five month of 1999 were up 267 percent at Detroit and 131 percent at Dallas Fort-Worth.

The Continental chief acknowledged that customers were frustrated by delays but he promised to ban for life a customer who is alleged to have slammed a gate agent head-first to the ground last Thursday in Newark.

"I can tell you this guy is never going to fly on Continental again," Bethune said. He called on Congress to pass legislation banning passengers who hospitalize airline employees from the airline system.

Continental has asked Essex County to prosecute the passenger to the full extent of the law. Gate agent Angelo Sottile was hospitalized with severe head injuries and multiple neck fractures.

Bethune praised a four-year $57.4 billion aviation bill passed by the House but noted it was being attacked by fiscal conservatives.

"It now appears that the Congress may spend the next few months in a complex inside-the-beltway committee jurisdictional argument about whether is is bad precedent to take trust funds off-budget," Bethune said.

He said it was outrageous that the ticket taxes and aviation fuel taxes paid by passengers and airlines were not being spent on air traffic control improvements.

In addition to more money to upgrade equipment, FAA needed to consider privatization or a commercial management structure to get the air traffic reform job done, Bethune said.

Asked what airlines could do to make lawmakers see the urgency of the situation and free up more money, Bethune quipped: "Put them all in the center aisle of coach (class)."

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), July 28, 1999.

thanks Cheryl : )

seems something is beginning to unravel.

Mike

====================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), July 28, 1999.

I want to know why the FAA talking head at the last WDC Y2K said that he was from the "NEW FAA". The FAA that gets its projects done on time.

Could he have been stretching the truth a little?

-- cory (kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net), July 28, 1999.

Do you get the sense that there is a little bit of panic starting to creep into the airlines now?

Gordon lost a LOT of money last week.

How much more do you think the airlines are going to lose this fall before they start bad-mouthing the FAA and saying that they aren't compliant after all?

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), July 29, 1999.