FAA History Lesson -- April 2 (2009)

From the FAA Historical Chronology, 1926-1996...

”Apr 2, 1971: The Administrator gave air traffic control facilities increased flexibility in granting pilot routing and altitude requests for all types of aircraft. Conditions permitting, controllers were empowered
to: relax the requirements for preferential routings; assign the most economical altitudes; discontinue standard instrument departures; and honor requests for direct radar vectors. These relaxed procedures were
made possible by a temporary decline in air traffic during fiscal 1971 (the first such decline since fiscal 1961), which coincided with a general slowdown in the U.S. economy. “

The more things change -- the more they stay the same.

Don Brown
April 2, 2009