--- In BATN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "3/25 New York Times" <batn@xxxx> wrote: Published Thursday, March 25, 2004, in the New York Times F.A.A. Takes Steps to Cut Total Delays By Matthew L. Wald HERNDON, Va. -- To reduce air traffic delays this summer, the Federal Aviation Administration will order short delays at some airports to avoid longer ones at others, officials announced today. The agency has dropped its adherence to a first-come-first-served system of traffic management, officials said, hoping that spreading out the delays will reduce the total minutes of delays. Air traffic controllers at the agency's command center here will act like police officers holding up traffic on a side street to clear out a jam on an avenue, establishing what Norman Y. Mineta, the secretary of transportation, called "express lanes in our skies." For example, Jack Kies, the director of system operations at the aviation agency, said, if a backup of airplanes at La Guardia Airport was threatening a chain reaction of delays, the agency might delay a takeoff from Syracuse, to leave more space in the skies for planes leaving La Guardia. A delay at 8 a.m. at La Guardia would cause a backup that would not be cleared until after 11 a.m., Mr. Kies said, but a single plane held on the ground in Syracuse for a few minutes would probably not cause any other delays. The plan was agreed to in a series of meetings this month with representatives of the major airlines, regional carriers, private plane owners and corporate jet operators, pilots unions and the Defense Department, officials said. The airlines "agreed to accept the philosophical bias of sharing the pain," Mr. Kies said. But the idea is to cut total delays. Marion Blakey, the administrator of the aviation agency, said, "This is not just a system of redistributing the pain; it's lessening the pain." The agency will begin creating short delays at some airports when the delays at congested places are projected to reach 90 minutes, Mr. Mineta said. The airlines that operate hub-and-spoke systems from big airports are eager to reduce delays, but a strategy that spreads them among airports could hurt another carrier, Southwest Airlines. Southwest fled Denver and San Francisco to avoid routine delays. The airline's success depends on multiple flights for each plane each day, a strategy that requires more precise timing. The first-come-first-served system, which the new plan replaces in part, creates resentment when airlines flying planes with hundreds of passengers find themselves waiting in line to take off behind corporate jets with three or four people. In developing the new plan, Mr. Kies said, the corporate operators asked if they would sit on the ground at Teterboro, N.J., a popular corporate airfield near Manhattan, so delays at Kennedy Airport or La Guardia could be reduced. What would happen, the corporate operators asked, if a backup developed at Teterboro? Mr. Kies said, "The industry said, `We'll stop La Guardia or J.F.K. for 10 or 15 minutes.' I was staggered when I heard that." The three officials spoke at a briefing for reporters. In the background were huge screens showing air traffic around the continental United States, which Ms. Blakey said was "roaring back" to the levels before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. --- End forwarded message ---