You Don’t Say ?

Big news. You’re not going to believe this. A new runway decreases delays.

How a New Runway At O’Hare Makes Travel Easier for All

”The FAA says O’Hare’s maximum capacity before the new runway was 96 arrivals per hour in good weather; that’s now up to 112 per hour with the new runway “

I’m just wondering, does that sound familiar to anyone besides me ?

A chance to help unclog Atlanta

”The airport's capacity in good weather will rise to about 130 arrivals an hour from 98, the FAA's Lentini says. In bad weather, the capacity will increase to about 100 from 68. “

Of course “decrease delays” is really misleading. New runways increase capacity. It’s how you schedule their use that determines delays. The quote about Atlanta is from 2006. The quote about O’Hare is from July of this year. And so is this one:

”In the eight months since a new runway opened at the U.S.’s second-busiest airport, plagued for decades with lengthy flight delays, O’Hare has operated with above-average on-time arrivals—better than Dallas, Atlanta and Denver in 2009, according to FlightStats.com. O’Hare’s on-time arrival rate improved by 27% so far this year compared with the same period of 2008. That was twice the improvement of any other big U.S. airport.“

You see ? Atlanta is already old hat. In two years (assuming the economy improves), O’Hare will be back in the delay business -- just like Atlanta. And remember when the whole airport at Denver was brand new ?

Before I get too far away from it, take special note of that figure in the quote; ...on-time arrival rate improved by 27%...

Is there anybody that thinks NextGen will come anywhere close to that ?

I didn’t think so.

What was I saying just yesterday ? Oh yeah, it’s the runways, Stupid.


Don Brown
August 19, 2009

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