[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book II)]
[November 15, 2007]
[Pages 1473-1475]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks Following a Meeting With Secretary of Transportation Mary E.
Peters and Federal Aviation Administration
Acting Administrator Robert A. Sturgell
November 15, 2007
Thanksgiving is a week from today, and Christmas will quickly
follow. This is really a time of joy for our families. Unfortunately,
this is also a season of dread for too many Americans. Holiday travelers
faced with the prospect of long-delayed and canceled flights and lost
baggage and other problems have become all too often an occurrence. In
other words, there's a lot of people that are worried about traveling
because they've had unpleasant experiences when they've been flying
around the country.
And so this is a topic that I've just discussed with Secretary of
Transportation Mary Peters and the Acting Administrator of the FAA,
Bobby Sturgell. It's one thing to analyze the problem, but the American
people expect us to come up with some solutions. And that's what we've
been talking about. And one of the reasons we have a sense of urgency
about this issue is that these problems that we've been discussing are
clear to anybody who has been traveling. Airports are very crowded;
travelers are being stranded; and flights are delayed, sometimes with a
full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours. These failures
carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience
they cause, but in the business they obstruct and family gatherings they
cause people to miss.
We can do better. We can have an aviation system that is improved.
And that's what we're talking about. Secretary Peters and Acting
Administrator Sturgell have been working with the airline industry on
practical improvements. I want to announce a series of preliminary
actions to help address the epidemic of aviation delays.
First, the military will make available some of its airspace over
the east coast for use by civilian airliners this Thanksgiving. These
new routes will help relieve air congestion from Maine to Florida for
nearly 5 full days surrounding the holiday.
Second, the FAA is taking new measures to head off delays. Bobby
Sturgell will impose a holiday moratorium on all nonessential projects
so that the FAA can focus its personnel and equipment exclusively on
keeping flights on time. The FAA is also
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partnering with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to reduce
bottlenecks in the New York metro area, which is the source of most
chronic delays.
Third, the Department of Transportation and the FAA are encouraging
airlines to take their own measures to prevent delays. I'm pleased to
get the report from Secretary Peters and Acting Administrator Sturgell.
Airlines have agreed to make more staff available to expedite check-in
and boarding, to set aside extra seats and even extra planes to help
accommodate passengers affected by cancellations and delays. They agreed
to bring in additional ticket kiosks and baggage handling gear as well
as rolling staircases.
Fourth, the Federal Government is using the Internet to provide
real-time updates on flight delays. People in America have got to know
there's a web site called fly.faa.gov; that's where the FAA transmits
information on airport backups directly to passengers and their
families. If you're interested in making sure that your plans can--
aren't going to be disrupted, you can get on the web site of
fly.faa.gov. As well, if you want to, you can sign up to receive delay
notices on your mobile phones. In other words, part of making sure
people are not inconvenienced is there to be good transmission of sound,
real-time information.
Fifth, we're proposing new regulations to help ensure that airline
passengers are treated fairly. We're proposing to double the amount of
compensation passengers receive when they're forced off overbooked
flights. For example, a passenger forced to wait more than 2 hours for
another flight would receive a minimum of $800 under our idea, instead
of the current $400. We want people who are responsible for moving
passengers to understand that there will be consequences for these
delays, all aiming to get the system to work better.
We're proposing a requirement that airlines collect better data on
flight delays and provide that data to the Department of Transportation.
We're evaluating a number of other recommendations for the airlines,
including mandatory contingency plans to aid stranded passengers and
penalties for chronically delayed flights.
Finally, the Department of Transportation and the FAA are working on
innovative ways to reduce congestion in the long run. While short-term
improvements in flight operations and passenger treatment can help, they
do not cure the underlying problem. In certain parts of our country, the
demand for air service exceeds the available supply. As a result,
airlines are scheduling more arrivals and departures than airports can
possibly handle, and passengers are paying the price in backups and
delays.
The key to solving this problem is managing the demand for flights
at overloaded airports, and there are a variety of tools to do this in a
fair and efficient way. For example, fees could be higher at peak hours
and at crowded airports, or takeoff and landing rights could be
auctioned to the highest value flights. Market-based incentives like
these would encourage airlines to spread out their flights more evenly
during the day, to make better use of neighboring airports, and to move
the maximum number of passengers as quickly and efficiently as possible.
This concept is called congestion pricing. It has shown results in
other areas of our economy; in other words, other parts of our economy
use congestion pricing. Some States offer discounts to drivers who use
E-ZPass, which reduces long waits at the toll plaza. Phone and
electricity companies balance supply and demand by adjusting their rates
during peak usage hours. Applying congestion pricing to the aviation
industry has the potential to make today's system more predictable, more
reliable, and more convenient for the travelers. Over the past 7 weeks,
Federal officials have raised this idea with airlines and airport
representatives in the New York area. And I've asked Secretary Peters
and Acting Administrator
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Sturgell to report back to me about those discussions next month.
My administration will work swiftly to carry out the measures I've
announced today. But to reform our aviation system in a way American
consumers deserve, we need action from the United States Congress. In
February, my administration sent Congress an FAA modernization bill that
would improve the aviation system for all involved. The bill would
upgrade aviation technology by adopting a safer and more automated air
travel control system based on GPS technology, instead of the radar and
radio-based systems designed during World War II.
In other words, if we really want to solve this problem, it's time
for Congress to modernize the FAA, and we've given them a blueprint to
do so. The bill would employ market pricing to reduce congestion and
ensure that airports manage their schedules efficiently. The bill would
establish a new financing mechanism and governing structure to ensure
that these reforms are carried out in wise and cost-effective ways.
There are people in Congress who understand the need to act,
starting with Senators Trent Lott and Senator
Jay Rockefeller.
They're leaders in this area of modernization of our--of the FAA. They
understand that business as usual is not good enough for American
travelers. And so do I, and so does my administration.
I look forward to working with them to get a good bill passed as
soon as possible. By working together, we can restore the confidence of
America's consumers, improve the efficiency of America's airports, and
bring order to America's skies.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at 1:26 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
White House.