Washington Wire: FAA Approves N.E. U.S. Airspace Redesign

The Federal Aviation Administration last week approved a plan to reconfigure flight patterns across the northeastern United States, to the applause of domestic carriers but the jeers of local residents who soon will find themselves living under a flight pattern. FAA said the revision of 31,000 square miles of airspace from Delaware to Connecticut will reduce air delays by 20 percent by 2011. "This new concept in airspace design will help us handle the rapidly growing number of flights in the Northeast in a much more efficient way," said FAA administrator Marion Blakey. "This airspace was first designed in the 1960s and has become much more complex. We now need to look at creative new ways to avoid delays." Continental, JetBlue and US Airways, all with major hubs in the Northeast, each issued a statement lauding the move. "The implementation of this plan is the single best solution to the congestion and delays," said US Airways senior vice president of public affairs C.A. Howlett. However, the Newark Star-Ledger reported that the city of Elizabeth, N.J., near Newark Liberty International Airport, immediately filed suit in federal court to block the plan's implementation.

FAA Awards Keystone ATC Contract
The Federal Aviation Administration awarded a $1.8 billion, 18-year contract to ITT Corp. in a critical step toward building a new satellite-based air traffic navigation control system that would reduce flight delays and improve safety. ITT will be the prime contractor for the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, the keystone technology of the planned Next Generation Air Transport System. "This signals a new era of air traffic control," said FAA deputy administrator Bobby Sturgell. "ADS-B and NextGen will attack the delay problem head on by dramatically increasing air traffic efficiency." ITT is tasked with having the system operational by 2010 and providing nationwide coverage by 2013. The technology also can supply pilots with weather information, terrain maps and flight information. It is designed to provide precise details about aircraft location, which will lead to more direct routes and improved airspace efficiency.

U.S. Tells Airlines To Speed 737 Wing Check
The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to speed up their inspection of wings on 783 Boeing 737 aircraft operated in the United States, citing a problem with loose parts that is more widespread than originally believed. Airlines were given 10 days, rather than the original 24, to perform the inspection, the FAA announced Aug. 29. Loose wing parts may be responsible for a fire that destroyed a China Airlines aircraft that became inflamed after landing in Okinawa, Japan, officials said. Boeing is backing the inspection order.

Study: Terror Attack Would Cost Billions
A new terrorist attack involving U.S. airlines would cost the industry as much as $420 billion if it grounded planes for a week and took two years to recover, according to a study. "The Economic Impacts of a Terrorist Attack on the U.S. Commercial Aviation System," by four scientists at the University of Southern California Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, appears in a special homeland security issue of the peer-reviewed journal Risk Analysis. Based on a conservative analysis funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the authors used the aftereffects of Sept. 11 to model a single attack on a major airport, causing an initial shutdown of the entire U.S. commercial air transport system, followed by a two-year recovery period. Key findings include that an initial seven-day shutdown would cost $12.5 to $21.3 billion and that overall loss estimates, excluding loss of life and replacement costs of aircraft damaged in an attack, for the two following years range from $214 billion to $420 billion.