FAA tells airlines to reduce delays or face flight limits

13 September 2007

Airlines in the US will have to trim their East Coast schedules and reduce delays. Otherwise, the government will be forced to step in and enforce flight limits, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Marion Blakey told Washington DC's Aero Club in a farewell speech held in her honour on Tuesday 11 September. (See:

Her five-year term as FAA administrator expires on Thursday 13 September. Blakey is the latest of several top administration officials to depart as President Bush's term comes nearer to a close. (See: UA FAA chief will become aerospace lobbyist)

She leaves to head the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), the country's main aerospace lobbyist, as its new chief executive, replacing John W Douglass, 66, who is retiring.

Pointing out that airline schedules sometimes are "out of line with reality", the FAA chief said, "If carriers aren't ready to address this, don't be surprised if the government steps in." Blakey's comments reflect the rising pressures on airlines to improve on-time arrivals, which have fallen to 72 per cent this year, the lowest since the US has started keeping track in 1995.

Such a move would not be without precedent. The FAA had negotiated flight limits to ease delays at Chicago in 2004. Blakey said, "Drawing down the schedule at Chicago was not my happiest hour. But it could come to that on the East Coast."

American Airlines and United Airlines still have flights curbs during peak hours at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, which are to last until November 2008, under the deal they and other carriers negotiated with the FAA. Delays fell 20 per cent after the order took effect.