[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 87 (Tuesday, June 22, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H4730-H4731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  INDEPENDENCE AIRLINES/O'HARE DELAYS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gerlach). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my great concern 
that schedules recently implemented by the new carrier Independence Air 
will undermine the hard work that the FAA has done for this summer's 
service to O'Hare International Airport. This is an issue where we 
should all be concerned, considering that delays at O'Hare not only 
impact my district but also shake the entire national aviation system.
  Beginning this past winter and continuing through spring, the DOT and 
the FAA worked carefully with the two largest carriers at O'Hare, 
American Airlines and United Airlines, to reduce schedules during the 
peak hours for this summer season. Those airlines agreed to reduce 
their schedules in the busy afternoon and evening hours, first by 5 
percent and later by another 2.5 percent. This notable effort was 
widely announced by the DOT and the airlines as an important step in 
reducing delays at O'Hare and throughout the entire national airspace 
system during this peak season.
  However, Independence Air, a new airline operating small 50-seat 
regional jets, has announced they will have 12 new round trips per day 
from Washington Dulles to O'Hare. This service has at least five round 
trips in the peak hours and began last week on June 16.
  Mr. Speaker, this offering of new service, especially with small 
regional jets, is not only unfair to those airlines who made the 
schedule cuts but also undermines the work of the Department of 
Transportation and adds delays during the busy summer months. The new 
service adds only 600 seats per day in each direction, but uses 12 
round trips' worth of takeoff and landing capacity.
  Furthermore, the Chicago-Washington market already has plenty of 
service, including 10 round trips with full-sized low-fair jets by 
Southwest between BWI and Midway, ATA Airlines between Reagan National 
and Midway, and even more service by American and United Airlines from 
Reagan National to O'Hare. Meanwhile, American and United have had to 
reduce service in smaller, less-served markets to free up capacity at 
O'Hare.
  The bottom line is that operational restrictions at O'Hare will not 
solve the delay problem over the long run. The answer to the delay 
problem is increasing capacity through the O'Hare Modernization 
Program, OMP. Therefore, I do hope that the completion of the OMP's 
environmental impact statement, the ESI, will move forward as 
expeditiously as possible.
  In the meantime, I am concerned about Independence Air, because the 
Department's future ability to work with existing carriers to reduce 
schedules will be ruined if a schedule agreement can be so quickly and 
easily undermined.
  I hope that this is an issue that we can study more in depth at an 
aviation subcommittee hearing in the coming months. I ask that the DOT 
work quickly with Independence Air to shift these planned flights out 
of the peak periods at O'Hare this summer.
  I would also appreciate an explanation as to how future scheduling 
agreements can be enforced. Without

[[Page H4731]]

an enforcement mechanism, a voluntary scheduling production process 
cannot work in the future. Time is of the essence. We must give this 
issue the attention it needs and deserves and work to prevent the 
millions of passengers who pass through O'Hare Airport from being 
delayed.

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