Excerpts from
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/08/17/askthepilot241/print.html
The real culprit isn't summer thunderstorms or faulty air traffic
control equipment. It's the airline industry's obsession with pumping
more and more airplanes - particularly smaller regional jets - into an
already saturated system, and the airlines' self-defeating belief that
frequency of flights is the key to success.
With a greater number of people flying than ever before, the size of
the average aircraft has been shrinking. That means more takeoffs,
more landings, more gridlock.
The average jetliner now has 137 seats - 23 fewer than it did five
years ago. The use of RJs, which carry anywhere from 35 to 70
passengers, has increased nearly 200% in that span.
Short of building newer and bigger airports, the only reasonable
alternative is for airlines to consolidate flights and use larger
planes. Alas, encouraging commuters to carpool does little to solve
roadway congestion, and I'd expect about the same response from the
airlines.
And you can't entirely blame them. After all, we're getting what we
ask for. When airlines come around asking for opinions, their
customers invariably answer yes, absolutely, they want and appreciate
the opportunity to choose from no less than 35 daily departures
between Los Angeles and San Francisco, Chicago and New York - even if
only a quarter of those flights are anywhere close to departing on
time.
Until that consolidation pipe dream is fulfilled, here is one idea
that might alleviate some of the pain whenever those thunderheads roll
in and delays begin to mount. How about awarding "wheels-up" slot
times based not on a flight's first-come, first-served position in the
queue, but based on the aircraft's number of seats?
The best way of getting 5,000 delayed people from city A to city B is
to begin with whichever flights are carrying most of them, is it not?
Some asterisks could apply, but as a rule the largest planes would be
released first, RJs and turboprops last.
How about some swapping? Does a 747 bound for Tokyo with 430 people on
board need to stand in line for 45 minutes so that a flock of RJs can
be launched toward Washington, Albany, and Burlington, Vt?
--
We do what we must, and call it by the best names.
...Ralph Waldo Emerson |