Ahh, the joy of spending precious holiday time stuck in some
crummy airport. I know it well. We frequent travelers are used to
it, but for holiday travelers the delays in the system can be
especially frustrating.
One big part of the problem is too many flights trying to go
in and out of the airport at the same time.
The airlines all want to provide flights at the same optimal hours even
if there is not enough room to move them all in and out in that period. Consider one random day in New York this
year. The airlines scheduled 59 departures between 8:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. at
JFK even though the Federal Aviation Administration can only safely handle 42
to 50 take-offs, depending on weather conditions. Passengers were guaranteed to
be delayed before the day even started.
The solution to this part of
the delay problem is to put congestion pricing at the airports. But the airlines and other resist this
idea. Recently the federal government
backed down on congestion pricing as a fix for NYC airports. As my colleague Bob Poole put it, "It is
disappointing that the federal plan to reduce delays was unable to incorporate
congestion pricing or produce a real auction that puts every runway spot up for
bid. The new plan is a band-aid that won't cure delays. Airlines schedule more
flights than can be safely handled by today's existing runways and air traffic
technology, but they don't bear the costs of the delays they create.”
It is past time to get serious
about airport congestion pricing. Reason
recently published some helpful reports:
»
Study:
Congestion Pricing for New York
Airports: Reducing Delays While Promoting Growth and Competition (.pdf)
»
Frequently Asked Questions
About Airport Congestion Pricing (.pdf)
»
Using the Revenues from Airport Pricing (.pdf)
»
Evidence That Airport Pricing Works (.pdf)