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Stuck
waiting:
ground
delays
at US
airports
on the
rise
By Scott
Mayerowitz
Associated
Press
NEW YORK
- On a
recent
morning,
Delta
Air
Lines
Flight
435
pushed
back
early
from the
gate at
New
York's
John F.
Kennedy
International
Airport.
Passengers
watched
the
safety
video
and
settled
in for a
six-hour
trip.
Then
they
waited.
And
waited.
Still
within
sight of
the
gate,
their
jet sat
motionless
due to
airport
congestion.
It
wasn't
until 30
minutes
after
passengers
buckled
in that
they
were
finally
in the
sky.
It's a
scene
playing
out
across
the
country.
According
to an
Associated
Press
analysis,
airplanes
spent 23
minutes
and 32
seconds,
on
average,
taxiing
between
gates
and
runways
during
the
first
nine
months
of the
year.
That's
the
longest
it has
been
since
the
Bureau
of
Transportation
Statistics
started
tracking
taxi
times in
1995 and
a
50-second
increase
over
last
year's
average.
For
passengers,
the
rising
delays
add to
the
frustrations
of
travel.
A plane
might
land
early
but then
sit
waiting
for a
gate to
open up.
Flights
are
still
arriving
"on
time"
but only
because
airlines
have
increased
scheduled
flying
times to
account
for the
added
taxi
times.
The
Delta
flight
made it
to the
gate in
San
Francisco
10
minutes
ahead of
scheduled
despite
the
takeoff
delays.
The
creep in
taxi
times is
attributed
to a
series
of
changes:
massive
runway
construction
projects
at some
of the
nation's
busiest
airports;
schedule
changes
that
increase
the
number
of
flights
at peak
hours;
and new,
distant
runways
that
relieve
congestion
but
require
more
time to
reach.
"It's
death by
a
thousand
cuts,"
says
Vikram
Krishnan,
a
partner
in the
aviation
practice
of
consultancy
Oliver
Wyman.
The
problems
on the
ground
are
costing
airlines
dearly.
"Two,
three,
four,
five
minutes
in a
fleet of
500
planes a
day is
significant
amounts
of
money,"
says
aviation
consultant
Mike
Boyd.
That
translates
into
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
extra in
operating
costs so
far this
year,
according
to AP
calculations
factoring
in
average
operating
costs
including
pilot
and
flight
attendant
salaries.
Airlines
say the
longer
taxi
times
are
baked
into
schedules,
so
planes
generally
still
arrive
on time.
So far
this
year, 79
percent
of
flights
have
been at
the gate
within
15
minutes
of their
scheduled
time,
the best
performance
since
2012.
Passengers
might be
spending
more
time on
planes,
but
airlines
are
better
managing
their
expectations
by
increasing
scheduled
times.
That
masks
some of
the
problems,
like
taxi
delays.
For
instance,
ten
years
ago the
average
scheduled
time
from
gate to
gate
between
Chicago
and San
Francisco
was 4
hours
and 32
minutes.
Today,
flights
are
scheduled
for an
extra 11
minutes,
according
to
PlaneStats.com
- even
though
airports
in the
two
cities
are the
same
1,846
miles
apart.
All it
takes
are a
few
problems
at some
of the
country's
busiest
airports
to drive
up the
national
taxi
time
average.
The top
offender
in the
past
year was
Chicago's
O'Hare
International
Airport.
Of all
the
additional
taxi
time
minutes
in the
nation,
one of
out of
five
extra
minutes
can be
traced
back to
delays
at
O'Hare.
Planes
in
Chicago
this
year
spent an
average
of 1
minute
and 18
seconds
extra
navigating
the
taxiways.
And taxi
times
are up 3
minutes
and 24
seconds
from
five
years
ago, a
20-percent
increase.
Those
delays
add up
considering
that
O'Hare
had
227,358
flights
during
the
first
nine
months
of this
year.
Most of
the
problems
at
O'Hare
stem
from a
construction
project
that is
reconfiguring
taxiways
and
runways.
The
long-term
goal is
to
reduce
congestion
but
delays
racked
up
during
the
construction.
A new
runway
did just
open,
but
further
away
from the
airport's
terminals.
Longer
trips
from
that
runway
are not
yet
reflected
in
government
data.
In an
email to
the AP,
O'Hare
officials
note
that
taxi
times
"will
fluctuate
as
construction
phases
are
started
or
finished"
and that
the work
is
helping
to
reduce
delays
in the
sky
around
the
airport.
Delays
have
also
been
climbing
at the
two main
airports
in
Dallas,
but for
different
reasons.
At
Dallas
Love
Field,
taxi
times
are up
two
minutes,
or
13-percent,
so far
this
year.
That's
the
highest
percent
gain of
any
major
airport.
Home to
Southwest
Airlines,
Love
Field
saw the
number
of
scheduled
flights
during
the
first
nine
months
of this
year
spike 41
percent
to
47,438
after
the
repeal
of a
federal
law
restricting
most
long-distance
flights
from
that
airport.
Terry L.
Mitchell,
the
airport's
assistant
director
for
operations,
says the
increase
in
flights,
construction
projects
and the
use of a
further
runway
to
reduce
noise
concerns
of
neighbors
all led
to the
run up
in taxi
times.
Now that
construction
is
complete
and the
airport
at
capacity,
he
expects
no
further
growth
in taxi
times.
Across
town at
Dallas-Fort
Worth
International
Airport,
taxi
times
climbed
two and
a half
minutes,
or 11.7
percent.
In this
case,
the
increase
was due
to new
scheduling
procedures
by
American
Airlines,
which
carries
82
percent
of the
passengers
at the
airport.
American
groups
together
large
numbers
of
flights
in
Dallas -
and its
other
hubs -
to allow
passengers
easy
connections.
In
March,
the
airline
reconfigured
its
schedule
so more
flights
arrive
and
depart
in a
narrower
band of
time.
That
meant
shorter
layovers
in the
airport,
more
connection
options
for
passengers
and more
revenue
opportunities
for the
airline.
However,
the
adjustments
also
extended
taxi
times.
American
accounted
for
those
increases
in its
schedule.
"When
they try
to cram
as many
flights
as
possible
into
their
hubbing
complexes,"
says
airline
consultant
Paul
Sterbenz,
"they
create
logjams."
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