[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 46 (Monday, November 19, 2007)]
[Pages 1504-1506]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.

[[Page 1505]]

    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 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

[[Page 1506]]

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 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.
    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.