What’s driving delays? One expert’s perspective

Conventional wisdom has it that the rampant delays and cancellations we’ve been experiencing this past year are pegged to airlines trying to cram too many airplanes into too little airspace. But that’s not the root of it asserts Mike Boyd, chief of the Boyd Group, a respected aviation consultancy.

Boyd blames the FAA for the system’s slowdown. “We have too little air traffic control infrastructure to efficiently handle the natural demand generated by our economy,” he contends in a recent edition of his Aviation Hot Flash newsletter.

Boyd asserts that the FAA “is nowhere near implementing an ATC system that is anywhere near the needs of the transportation system”.

The alternative to increased capacity (something FAA says it is working on) is to decrease traffic. That means culling flights, and Boyd belives the nation’s smaller cities will be hardest hit. The theory is that by taking some smaller regional jets out of the air traffic control mix, air traffic controllers will be better able to handle the flow, especially at large hub airports which attract lots of regional jets. RJs that feed connecting flights; flights that employ larger airplanes.

Boyd says the culling has already begun: “quietly along the margins of the air transportation system. A number of small and mid-size communities are getting [the] unpleasant news this month.”

Fliers need to keep close track of developments in Cheapflights’ news over the coming months. We’ll chronicle who’s gaining service and who’s losing it. The information could have a real impact on your travel plans.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler