Katrina vanden Heuvel: Thanksgiving's Not-So-Friendly Skies

[marmar]

from The Nation:



BLOG | Posted 11/21/2007 @ 2:37pm
Thanksgiving's Not-So-Friendly Skies


While there are extraordinarily important issues to reckon with--ending this catastrophic war and devising a sane national security policy, providing universal health care, and repairing the gutted social compact--fixing our air travel system may be one of the most potent political issues of our time.

An outdated air traffic control system, flight routes from the 1950's, and air traffic controllers retiring more quickly than they can be replaced while the Bush Administration plays hardball on a new contract and imposes work rules-- these are just some of the issues that have led to the airline "industry post its worst on-time performance since it began collecting comparable statistics in 1995."

Roughly 25 percent of domestic flights run late. And now--with 27 million passengers expected to travel over Thanksgiving and the public taking matters into its own hands with the air passenger bill of rights movement--President Bush has attempted to "solve" the problem with a little sleight-of-hand and a PR effort.

To much fanfare, Bush has opened up restricted military airspace off of the East Coast to create a "Thanksgiving express lane for congested traffic."

But the Bush Administration fails to mention that opening up military airspace is already routine. According to the Washington Post, "Such arrangements are not new. The FAA coordinates daily with the Defense Department and seeks same-day clearance to use military airspace if, for example, weather conditions are better in the military's part of the sky." .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=253565