Kyrie Eleison

Just a reminder that it’s Good Friday and an observation: Have you ever noticed how many exclamations come from church ?

Lord have mercy, the airline industry is talking about bringing back the turboprop.

North America Looks to Turboprops

One of the problems you see in air traffic control (over and over again) is that business can move so much faster than government. Airlines can put a dozen airplanes into a new airport before the FAA can redesign the airspace to accommodate the new traffic. When the price of fuel goes up, the airlines change the way they operate and the FAA, once again, has to play catch up.

With the price of fuel -- and the financial crisis -- expect to see a lot of changes in the entire aviation community. It could be a huge break for the FAA. Air traffic usually declines during a recession. That could give the FAA some extra time to hire more controller trainees and it might keep some from leaving.

Don Brown
March 21, 2008