Padding flight schedules is almost epidemic. As just one example, NY to Washington DC is scheduled for between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half, when flight time is about 30 minutes. This is not new, though. It started about a decade ago, when reporting on-time performance was instituted. I can't remember the last time that I haven't actually arrived early, barring really major weather, ATC, or other delays. What the NYT article may be observing is a recovery from the poor on-time performance in the initial post 9/11 period, when extra security and all the rest of the hassles we've come to know and love were instituted and threw lots of sand in the airlines' cogs. Best regards, Stefano Pagiola