[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3165 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3165

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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 19, 2008

  Mr. Schumer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Summer Travel Delay Prevention 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Flight delays and cancellations hit all time highs at 
        major airports nationwide during the summer of 2007, when--
                    (A) 20 percent more passengers were affected by 
                flight delays than were affected during the previous 
                summer;
                    (B) nearly 621,000 flights were delayed, an 
                increase of 15 percent compared with approximately 
                539,000 delayed flights in the summer of 2006;
                    (C) such delays lasted an average of 60 minutes, a 
                7 percent increase from the average length of flight 
                delays in the previous summer;
                    (D) flight cancellations increased to 48,000, from 
                37,000 in the summer of 2006, affecting nearly 
                3,200,000 passengers; and
                    (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.
            (2) The Inspector General of the Department of 
        Transportation--
                    (A) identified the New York area as 1 of 3 
                saturation points across the country that impacted 
                delays nationwide;
                    (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; 
                and
                    (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.
            (3) The 3 airports in the New York area, Kennedy Airport 
        (JFK), LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty Airport--
                    (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;
                    (B) are anticipated to experience massive delays in 
                the summer of 2008; and
                    (C) have a ripple effect on the national airspace 
                system.
            (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.
            (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.
            (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.
            (7) In addition to technology improvements, proven tools 
        are available to reduce airspace congestion and address the 
        massive delays.
            (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.
            (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.

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--
            (1) a plan to open up special use airspace for additional 
        lanes of air traffic at specific choke points during the summer 
        of 2008; and
            (2) a permanent plan to share the military airspace off the 
        eastern coast of the United States, which--
                    (A) creates a corridor for commercial flights 
                seeking to avoid inclement weather or excessive air 
                traffic; and
                    (B) provides for immediate reclamation of such 
                airspace by the Department of Defense in the event of a 
                national emergency.

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.
    (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.

SEC. 5. AVIATION TRAVELER TASK FORCE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (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.
            (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.
            (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.
            (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.
    (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.
    (c) Functions.--The Aviation Traveler Task Force shall--
            (1) clarify interpretations of safety directives issued by 
        the Federal Aviation Administration with which air carriers 
        will soon need to comply;
            (2) develop contingency plans in the event that additional 
        aircraft--
                    (A) are found to be out of compliance with such 
                safety directives; and
                    (B) need to be grounded;
            (3) generate ideas for the best way to notify passengers on 
        a massive scale that their flights have been cancelled; and
            (4) design a notification system to alert passengers of 
        potential service disruptions.
    (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.
                                 <all>