|
|
Article: Let pilots do it; Air-traffic control; How to improve America's air-traffic control.(United States)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- June 9, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
AROUND this time of year, Americans are usually braced for bad news about air travel. One group or another of pilots or cabin attendants is bound to announce plans for a strike that will leave them sitting for hours at the airport. Bad weather will stop the planes leaving; this accounts for half of the hold-ups. But the overriding problem is sheer congestion. Airlines schedule far more flights for a given time than can possibly be squeezed on to the runways. The real cause is the volume of air traffic, and an air-traffic-control system not good enough to handle it.
On any given day 1.9m Americans take off (God willing) on one of the 38,000 flights the airlines ...