Airline executives should work with officials to reduce delays, or else… warns President Bush

28 September 2007

After a summer of discontent among air travellers in the US owing to airline delays, President George W Bush ordered on Thursday 27 September that transportation officials should work with airline executives to reduce delays in the nation's overcrowded airspaces, beginning with New York.

About a quarter of all domestic flights run late. One-third of the USA's air traffic passes through the New York region. Three-fourths of the chronic delays around the country can be traced to delays in New York.

White House officials said a number of options were on the table, like capping the number of flights at peak hours, and / or allowing airports to charge airlines higher fees for landings at the busiest times in the day.

The administration is also considering rules that would require airlines to provide passengers with more information about frequently delayed flights and to give more compensation to travellers who are bumped off from flights owing to overbooking.

President Bush summoned secretary of transportation Mary E Peters and top aviation officials to the Oval Office for a highly publicised meeting. The president said airlines should treat passengers better when there are delays. "There's a lot of anger amongst our citizens about the fact that, you know, that they're just not being treated right," Bush said. Some, he said, had been subjected to "egregious behaviour".

Airlines have been unable to develop solutions to worsening congestion problems. Public frustration has led to consumer advocacy movement, and state and local governments have become involved. Congress is considering "passenger rights" measures.