This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx Memo Pad: Air Traffic Estimate for Decade’s End January 20, 2004 JOE SHARKEY In 2000, as air travel was surging, the Federal Aviation Administration estimated that 931 million passengers would board commercial airplanes in the United States in 2010, compared with 624 million in 1999. By mid-2001, when business travel slowed in a souring economy, aviation analysts said those projections already seemed exaggerated. And after Sept. 11, passenger growth projections were anyone's guess. Now the Boyd Group, the Colorado-based aviation consulting company, has published a new forecast that predicts the number of passengers boarding planes in the United States will total just over 740 million in 2009, far from the 2000 F.A.A. estimate, which had helped prompt many airports to undertake expensive expansion projects. The Boyd outlook also estimates that barring catastrophic events like a major terrorist attack or a sharp rise in oil prices, passenger traffic will grow from 2.2 percent to 2.7 percent this year. Northwest Data Issue Stirring Some Concern Corporate travel managers are not happy with Northwest Airlines for secretly providing personal passenger information to the government for a security study, according to an overnight survey conducted Sunday and yesterday by the Business Travel Coalition. Nor are they happy about the way the airline explained its actions when questions about it arose last week. Travel and purchasing managers from 45 big corporations participated in the survey. Nearly half said they were "extremely concerned" about Northwest's handling of the matter. Another 20 percent described themselves as "very concerned" or "concerned." Northwest said Sunday that its chief executive, Richard Anderson, and a spokesman, Kurt Ebenhoch, were misinformed when they denied in September that the airline had provided passenger records to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for a security study. Northwest said Sunday that neither Mr. Anderson nor Mr. Ebenhoch had been aware when they denied it that the airline's security department had shared millions of passenger records. Much of the criticism from corporate travel managers centered on Northwest's response to the controversy, according to the Business Travel Coalition. Delta to Begin Using Zone Boarding System Delta Air Lines will begin boarding passengers by staggered zones tomorrow in domestic airports. In the coach section, passengers will get boarding passes with a zone number corresponding to one of six sections of the cabin. Coach cabin boarding will be called by zone, in contrast to the previous procedure of boarding the plane "from the rear of the aircraft forward," said Rob Maruster, Delta's director for airport customer service. First-class passengers will continue to be the first to board. But there is a change for coach passengers with Medallion elite status in Delta's frequent-flier program, who used to be boarded in one group, right after first class. Now they will be boarded by two zones, depending on whether they are seated toward the front or the rear of the plane, Mr. Maruster said. The new boarding procedure - which was tested on Delta's low-fare subsidiary Song and is already used by several other airlines - is part of a drive by Delta to reduce on-ground turnaround time for aircraft and get them "flying more," Mr. Maruster said. Over all, "boarding is going to be a lot more efficient, and it's going to be a lot less hassle," he said. The new procedure "saves us between 7 to 10 minutes" in boarding a fully booked airplane, he said. International Meetings Expected to Increase The growing demand for international travel is being reflected in the meetings and conventions industry. United States meetings planners expect an 11 percent rise in the number of international meetings this year over last year, according to Future Watch 2004, a report by Meeting Professionals International and American Express that will be issued this week. In a survey for the annual report, corporate and professional meetings planners projected an average 3 percent increase in spending this year over last year, when spending decreased 1 percent over 2002. Another Chance to Pass Through Metal Detectors Now you get a second chance to fish out those overlooked coins in your pocket when you go through airport checkpoint metal detectors. Under a new policy by the Transportation Security Administration, passengers who set off metal detectors are invited to try one more time, after depositing metal objects in a tray. Previously, setting off the metal detector meant an automatic secondary screening. Only 3 U.S. Airports Show Rise in Capacity Only 3 of the 31 largest domestic airports had increases in scheduled air service capacity as of last month over December 2002, according to a report by the Office of Inspector General in the Transportation Department. The three with increases in available seats were Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (up 16 percent); Kennedy International in New York (up 7 percent); and McCarran International in Las Vegas (up 1 percent). At the bottom of the list, three airports showed decreases of more than 25 percent in available seats: San Francisco International (down 28 percent); Pittsburgh International (down 34 percent); and Lambert-St. Louis International (down 59 percent). http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/20/business/20memo.html?ex=1075608663&ei=1&en=e13279e6153fcc09 --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! 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