Short title

This Act may be cited as the

Summer Travel Delay Prevention Act

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.

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.

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.

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.