Minor Thoughts from me to you

Hate flying? Don't blame it on the evil "free-market", "private" airlines. There are huge chunks of the system that they don't control. There are also many decisions that they don't get to make, thanks to government regulations. Add air travel to the list of hated things that government is partially responsible for screwing up. Scott McCartney writes about some of the details in the Wall Street Journal.

Last year, nearly one-quarter of all U.S. airline flights were delayed, and the average delay was 55 minutes, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Passengers lost 112 million hours of time spent waiting, according to estimates compiled by GRA Inc., a consulting firm, based on Department of Transportation data. That's 12,785 years worth of waiting time.

And that doesn't count the delay already baked into airline schedules. On average, U.S. airline flights were scheduled 15 minutes longer in 2006 than in 1997, based on the same distances, according to a study by researchers Steven Morrison and Clifford Winston. Compare current airline schedules to old timetables and you'll find that it apparently takes 25 minutes longer to fly from New York to Los Angeles than it did 10 years ago.

Delays cost airlines $8.1 billion in direct operating costs in 2007, mostly burning extra fuel and paying crews for the extra time. That's more than the U.S. industry has ever earned in a year. Cutting delays can boost productivity, help the environment, reduce foreign oil imports and make the airline industry more financially stable.

More than 1,600 flights last year sat for longer than three hours waiting to take off, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

How is that the government's fault? Well, they control the old, out-dated, and insufficient air traffic control system.

The root of most of the travel problems is a creaky air-travel system run by the FAA that struggles to meet today's demand and certainly can't handle future growth. It's basic national infrastructure in need of modernization. The skies are our interstate highway system and we need new freeways.

The current time-table for modernizing air-traffic control covers 20 years, and the history of the effort is filled with delays. What's needed is a full-court press.

Former FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey says the transformation to a modern system can "absolutely" be sped up. She says the FAA can quickly put in more departure and arrival routes that take advantage of advanced navigation equipment already on a lot of newer aircraft, and if the government makes a bigger commitment to modernize, it will rev up improvement even further by spurring bigger investments by airlines. So far, airlines have been cautious about buying new equipment before the FAA can put it to good use.

"A bigger government commitment in this area, though modest by most standards, makes the business case work for the airlines to equip much of the rest of their fleet," Ms. Blakey said.

Many industry watchers would like to see the FAA split into two parts: a safety regulator for airlines, airports and air-traffic controllers, and a separate air-traffic-control system run in a business-like manner by a not-for-profit entity, not government.

One major reason to split the FAA is that the agency today is both the safety regulator and the operator. In air-traffic control, the FAA regulates itself, leading to potential conflicts of interest.

Dorothy Robyn, a principal of Brattle Group and the White House transportation adviser in the Clinton administration, says the U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations in which air-traffic control is still operated and regulated by the same agency. This summer she proposed that a split would enhance safety and at the same time yield faster progress on modernization.

"The problems of the air-traffic-control system are the predictable result of flawed public policy," Dr. Robyn says.

Air-traffic control is a high-technology business these days, requiring lots of investment in new equipment and lots of focus on productivity and service. Traditional government agencies aren't particular good at that, especially when constrained by federal budget rules and sometimes micromanaged by Congress, which often dictates which town will get a new control tower or runway.

Just one more reason why I'm thankful that we have a government to watch over us and protect us. Or not.