Update: June 26, 2008

Congress and FAA fiddle while airlines burn: FAA and Congressional Committee analyze the elephant - but fail to identify it

On June 9, 2008, the American Working Group on National Policy, Inc. (AWGNP) issued a negative and critical review of Your Flight Has Been Delayed, a report by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee (JEC).

The JEC report mimics the joke about four blind men feeling different parts of the elephant. No one person was able to identify the animal correctly with the incomplete data he alone had, and thus, the solution to the question was answered incorrectly by all. Similarly, the congressional report is incomplete and inaccurate, with this "eli-donkey" result.

Due to this, the resulting, invalid analysis of "costs to the U.S. economy" of yearly flight delays as quoted in the report,is exaggerated and unsupportable. Most of the cited "costs" to the economy are, in fact, not costs but are transfer-payments staying inside the closed loop of our US economy. Thus, the report could at best be considered an attempt to characterize "costs to the privately owned U.S. airlines". Hence, the presented $41B/year cost to the U.S. economy must truthfully be reduced to, at most, $19B airline only cost.

AWGNP notes that its organization and The Alliance of Residents Concerning O'Hare have repeatedly warned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other federal agencies over the last several years that exceptionally higher fuel costs lie in our future and that specific actions should be taken to ward off resulting airline industry financial debacles, such as those that are now occurring. The current massive and expensive airport expansions are premised on unrealistic projections of future passenger and cargo traffic levels and ultimately are being borne by financially strapped American taxpayers.

Eliminating unnecessary airport expansions, expansions that will not solve air traffic delays, will save the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars in both direct and indirect dollars. Much of the tax and bond money can be effectively, efficiently, and affordably converted into provisions for a sustainable, world-class, national high-speed rail system that rivals other countries' impressive systems. This will reduce airport delays by a minimum of 50% (a savings to the air traveler of over $20 Billion), while providing a competitive alternative to aviation.

The airlines are now in such dire straits that they have (finally) realized that their survival depends on substantially raising ticket prices. This single action will significantly reduce net capacity (number of flights per year), which will in turn also work greatly to eliminate any (in-aircraft) delays, perhaps almost completely. Again, eliminating the need for the unnecessary and expensive airport expansions.

The JEC would be wise to immediately redirect their efforts and investigation toward considerations and analyses of possible airline and airport survival programs as well as sustainable long-term transportation needs (see AWGNP Postscript in full report), rather than the relatively small "cost of delays" impacts.

American citizens, the financial community and US business require comprehensive, strategically significant transportation and financial analyses, not manipulated data and "smoke and mirror" scare tactics.

With the global economy's interest in global warming and the protection of our environment, the JEC must also evaluate the environmental costs of emitting approximately 200 million metric tons of CO2 (and a forcing rate of at least 2-4 times that) into the atmosphere each year by U.S. commercial airlines, (military and privately owned aircraft emissions would add to this burden), in a global economy that is clamping down on CO2 emissions and abuse.

In order to remain competitive, our passenger transportation industry must reflect the current reality: dependency on air transport alone for longer regional distances is unacceptable.

Congress needs to act quickly to rein in this looming crisis and the mal-functioning FAA, advisedly by placing an immediate hold on all such expansions.

The interests of those who will profit from building out the expansions, should not be put before taxpayers who will have to pick up the bill at the end of the day, because if the airlines are not paying for the expansion, by the very definition, the taxpayer is.

* AWGNP full critical review can be found at: http://areco.org/pdf/ReviewFlightDelayed.pdf

** A vetted and sustainable economic stimulus and long-term transportation plan that Washington should seriously consider is a win-win solution that has been backed by independent government reports; it can be found at: http://areco.org/pdf/Sustainable%20solutions%20final.pdf