FAA taskforce urged to address worsening delays in Northeast WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today urged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s congestion taskforce to immediately address flight delays in the New Jersey/New York area and provided some of his recommendations in a letter. The Senator welcomes the formation of the taskforce especially when in June 2007 only 54% of the flights arriving at the Newark Liberty International Airport were on time.

“We have a severely overburdened aviation network and market forces alone will not fix the problem," said Menendez, “For immediate relief, it is incumbent on the FAA congestion taskforce to develop sensible regulations to ease delays, cancellations and other disruptions in the near-term at our region’s major airports.”



Menendez believes the FAA should:

• examine whether temporary limits on operations (otherwise known as “caps”) should be placed on all of the region’s airports,
• immediately convene schedule reduction meetings with all relevant airlines and operators in the region,
• reexamine whether these increased delays can be managed by giving more priority to larger planes, particularly during periods of extreme congestion,
• determine whether the increased number of international flights coming into the region have increased delays for domestic flights.

To read full text of the letter to the FAA: http://menendez.senate.gov/pdf/082107lettertofaa.pdf

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Crowds Heed Amtrak's 'All Aboard'
Wall Street Journal - 1 hour ago
While airlines are running later and with more delays than ever -- a third of flights arrived late at La Guardia Airport between June 1 and Aug. 15, according to Flightstats.com -- Acela's performance is improving. The train is running on time 88% of the time, so far this year -- up from 84% a year ago. It was 90% on time in June. With Amtrak selling every seat on some Acela trains in peak travel periods, Amtrak recently added another weekday Acela round trip between New York and Washington to keep up with growing demand.


Flight times slip in Phila., Baltimore
The News Journal, DE - Aug 7, 2007 The Department of Transportation said Monday that the nation's carriers posted an on-time performance of 68.1 percent for the month -- the second-worst month since the depart- ment began reporting data in its current format in 1995. The figure was down from 72.8 percent in June 2006. Philadelphia International Airport had just 58.6 percent of flights arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled time in June.

FAA Chief To Become Aerospace Lobbyist
Washington Post, United States - Aug 21, 2007
Blakey's successor at the FAA has not been named. But administration officials discussed with members of Congress the possibility of naming Barbara Barrett, a former deputy FAA administrator under President Ronald Reagan and the wife of Craig R. Barrett, chairman of Intel.


‘Unfavorable Decision’   ¶ 8/23/2007