Gov't Threatens O'Hare Air Action

The U.S. government is threatening to force U.S. airlines to reduce their arrivals at Chicago O'Hare International Airport to reduce delays after face-to-face meetings of airline executives and government officials this month failed to produce a voluntary agreement to cut traffic.

Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey said the United States may use new congressional authority to implement a 7.5 percent cut in arrivals at O'Hare. The talks involved the 16 airlines that serve the world's second busiest airport behind Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson.

"We will take action unilaterally if we can't come to an agreement," Blakey told airline executives on the first day of a three-day meeting in Washington, adding that is something she hoped the government could avoid.

The summit adjourned Aug. 6 with no agreement, although U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said talks would continue via telephone. "Delays at O'Hare not only affect the nation's air traffic, they risk placing a bottleneck on the rapidly expanding economy," Mineta said. "Our goal here is not to dictate. We're counting on you to produce results."

More flights are late to O'Hare than any other U.S. airport. Since October 2003, only 63 percent of O'Hare flights arrived on time, the lowest rate since 70 percent of flights arrived on time in 2000, Blakey said. Sixty-eight percent of departures also were delayed, she noted.

Problems at O'Hare, which had a record 14,500 delayed flights in May, have a ripple effect throughout the nation, she said. On average, they lengthen backups at the nation's 35 largest airports by 12 percent. Delays in Chicago cost carriers $120 million in the first half of 2004, Mineta said.

Nationwide in June, one-fourth of all flights were delayed, FAA said—the worst performance since immediately after the 2001 terror attacks. Many of the delays in June were due to bad weather, FAA added.

Officials seek to limit flight arrivals at O'Hare to 86 per hour between noon and 7 p.m. daily, down from 93 flights per hour during the past six months. United and American airlines, the airport's largest carriers, already have reduced their takeoffs and landings by a combined 91 so far this year, which has had minimal impact on delays.

James May, president and CEO of the Airline Transport Association, said reducing takeoffs and landings is not the ultimate solution to O'Hare's congestion problems. "In the short term, voluntary efforts to reduce delays at O'Hare will only go so far," he said. "The real solution is to modernize O'Hare's runways to meet further demand."

DOT officials said the government and airlines also are discussing auctioning takeoff and landing slots as a long-term solution.