erations for the first six months of2000 are up 83 percent in Detroit, 120 percen t at Dallas Fort \<\forth, 115 percent in Cleveland and 91 percent at Chicago's O'Hare. New York's Newark has the worst delay problem with 90 delays per 1,000 depanures, foll owe d by New York's LaGuardia, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York's John F. Kennedy and Dallas Fort Worth in Texas. According to a recent Department of Tran sportati on ( DOT) I nspector General Audit Report, one large airline claimed it lost as much as S120 million in the first half of 1999 becau se ATC canceled fli ghts.
36
DEFINING A DELAYED FLIGHT The initial question of what constitutes a delayed flight is more complex than it appears. FAA only cou nts delays that occur at the direction of ATC. Therefore. if a fli ght sits at the ga te for an hour after scheduled departure time because of a mec hanical problem or a tardy crewmember, that flight would not be counted as delayed by the FAA as long as ATC cleared th e plane for take- off as soon as it was ready. On the other hand. if ATC holds the plane on the ground or place s it In a holding pattern in the sky, that counl S as a delay even if th e flight is able to reach th e gate at the sched uled arrival time. Howeve r. FAA allows itself a 15minute leeway period. If controllers delay a flight by 14 minutes, FAA still counts the plane on time. Th e issue becomes more confusing when looking at the on - time arrival stati stics that arc publi shed in the newspaper each month. These statistics are nOt FAA delay statistics. They come from DOT and are based on how often the airline's flights arrive on time. These statistics measu re ai rlin e delays regardle ss of th e cause.
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Additionally, th e published statistics arc arri va l statistics and not departure sta ti sti cs. Th ey are ba sed on the time the flight arrives at the gate rather than when it touches down on the runway. Since they are arr ival statiStics, the airline does not get an adva ntage by pulling away from the gate and si tting on the runway. etermining the cause of the delay creales more difficu lty. Weather, traffic volume, ATC equipment problem s and runway problem s are often cited as cause s. Frequently, the se fa ctor s overlap and there is di sagreement over the exact cause of the delay.
D
TAKING ACTION Co ngress passed the Wendell H . Ford Investment and Reform Act for th ~ 21 " Century (AIR-2l) on April 6, 2000. Thi s is a three -year bill di recting the FAA to establ ish a task force to examine the problem and in crease aviation inves tm ent by S10 bi llion over current levels. Most of the funding will pay for radar modernizat ion and much needed cons t ruction projects. Ripon Forum. Fall 2000