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To develop a plan to share military and special use airspace along the eastern seaboard with commercial air traffic, to provide adequate resources for the FAA New York Integration Office, to establish an Aviation Traveler Task Force, and to design a notification system to alert passengers of potential service disruptions.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

June 19, 2008CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Mr. SCHUMER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and TransportationCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

To develop a plan to share military and special use airspace along the eastern seaboard with commercial air traffic, to provide adequate resources for the FAA New York Integration Office, to establish an Aviation Traveler Task Force, and to design a notification system to alert passengers of potential service disruptions.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Summer Travel Delay Prevention Act’.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress makes the following findings:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) Flight delays and cancellations hit all time highs at major airports nationwide during the summer of 2007, when--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) 20 percent more passengers were affected by flight delays than were affected during the previous summer;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) nearly 621,000 flights were delayed, an increase of 15 percent compared with approximately 539,000 delayed flights in the summer of 2006;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) such delays lasted an average of 60 minutes, a 7 percent increase from the average length of flight delays in the previous summer;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(D) flight cancellations increased to 48,000, from 37,000 in the summer of 2006, affecting nearly 3,200,000 passengers; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(E) on board tarmac delays lasting at least 1 hour increased by 25 percent compared with the summer of 2006, affecting over 2,000,000 passengers.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) The Inspector General of the Department of Transportation--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) identified the New York area as 1 of 3 saturation points across the country that impacted delays nationwide;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) reported that the biggest airspace bottlenecks during the summer of 2007 were at the 3 major New York area airports and the surrounding airspace, accounting for more than 1/3 of the flight delays nationwide; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) after analyzing the likelihood of having more or less delays at 5 of the busiest airports based on current traffic and existing systems, determined that the significant increase in the peak travel schedule at LaGuardia Airport in the summer 2008 has the potential to worsen delay conditions.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) The 3 airports in the New York area, Kennedy Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty Airport--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) are the 3 worst airports across the country in terms of on-time arrivals, with only 59 percent of flights arriving on time at JFK and LaGuardia;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) are anticipated to experience massive delays in the summer of 2008; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(C) have a ripple effect on the national airspace system.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) Between October 2006 and July 2007 at JFK, average daily operations increased by 23 percent and arrival delays of more than 1 hour increased by 114 percent, to more than 2,300.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(5) The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that the number of passengers on commercial aircraft will increase by 36 percent between 2007 and 2015, to a total of 1,000,000,000 passenger trips.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(6) Next generation air traffic control technology has the ability to significantly improve congestion problems, but the Federal Aviation Administration has repeatedly delayed its implementation, currently estimated to take place in 2025, 11 years later than originally predicted.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(7) In addition to technology improvements, proven tools are available to reduce airspace congestion and address the massive delays.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(8) During the Thanksgiving holidays in 2007, military airspace off the East Coast was opened for commercial use, significantly reducing holiday delays and congestion by creating an additional lane for traffic.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(9) Empowering a director to oversee and coordinate operations in congested airspace has effectively reduced delays in South Florida, where some air carriers improved arrival performance by 44 percent and reduced delays lasting more than 90 minutes by 69 percent.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 3. PLAN FOR SHARING MILITARY AND SPECIAL USE AIRSPACE.

The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, in consultation with the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Defense, shall develop--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) a plan to open up special use airspace for additional lanes of air traffic at specific choke points during the summer of 2008; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) a permanent plan to share the military airspace off the eastern coast of the United States, which--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) creates a corridor for commercial flights seeking to avoid inclement weather or excessive air traffic; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) provides for immediate reclamation of such airspace by the Department of Defense in the event of a national emergency.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 4. NEW YORK INTEGRATION OFFICE.

(a) Budget Authority- The Director of the New York Integration Office of the Federal Aviation Administration is authorized to transfer any amounts appropriated for the operations of such office to any function that the Director determines to be necessary to carry out any flight delay reduction project involving the airspace in the New York-New Jersey region.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(b) Authorization of Appropriations- There are authorized to be appropriated to the Federal Aviation Administration such sums as may be necessary to carry out the responsibilities of the New York Integration Office, including hiring necessary support staff.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

SEC. 5. AVIATION TRAVELER TASK FORCE.

(a) Findings- Congress makes the following findings:CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) While aircraft safety should be a top priority for the Federal Aviation Administration and air carriers, compliance with Federal safety regulations should not come at the expense of passenger convenience.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) One of the chief complaints of customers left stranded during April 2008 by massive cancellations was the lack of notification about the status of their flights.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) Commercial air flight cancellations were announced with little advance notice, causing many travelers to discover that their flight was cancelled after they arrived at the airport.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) Air carriers have also reduced the number of flights on their schedules, which has frustrated consumers’ attempts to find replacement flights on other air carriers.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(b) Establishment- The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall establish an Aviation Traveler Task Force, comprised of Federal Aviation Administration employees and representatives of the commercial aviation industry.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(c) Functions- The Aviation Traveler Task Force shall--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) clarify interpretations of safety directives issued by the Federal Aviation Administration with which air carriers will soon need to comply;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) develop contingency plans in the event that additional aircraft--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(A) are found to be out of compliance with such safety directives; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(B) need to be grounded;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) generate ideas for the best way to notify passengers on a massive scale that their flights have been cancelled; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) design a notification system to alert passengers of potential service disruptions.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(d) Inspection Plans- The Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration shall ensure that any standardized plan to perform inspections of commercial aircraft includes a plan to reduce groundings and other consequences resulting from such inspections.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink