WashingtonWire - 2002-04-08

Air Accidents in 2001 Soar

U.S. scheduled airlines suffered 36 accidents last year with a loss of 531 lives, according to figures released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The 531 fatalities marked the highest total since 1977, when two jumbo jets collided in the Canary Islands. Because the four crashes of Sept. 11 resulted from criminal activity, those crashes are included in the totals for scheduled U.S. airline accidents and fatalities, but were not used to compute the accident rate. The remaining 32 accidents in 2001 resulted in an accident rate of .3 per 100,000 departures, a decrease from 2000, when 51 accidents were reported for a rate of .4 accidents per 100,000 departures. Accident rates for both scheduled and non-scheduled commuters decreased in 2001. The scheduled service rate decreased from 1.9 accidents per 100,000 departures in 2000 to 1.4 in 2001.



DOT, TSA Rolling Out Airport Detection Systems

The Transportation Security Administration will use a combination of explosive trace detection devices and explosives detection system machines to meet the Aviation and Transportation Security Act's mandate that all checked baggage be examined by machines by the end of December. According to TSA chief John Magaw and U.S. Department of Transportation secretary Norman Mineta, the less expensive, handheld ETD devices will be used at small airports, while the ETD devices will be used in combination with the expensive and bulky EDS machines at major airports. Mineta said the ETD technology is "equally good" for screening for explosives. By midsummer, TSA will notify specific airports of the type of baggage screening equipment they will receive. TSA on April 1 also said that airports must hire local law enforcement officials to be stationed at airport security checkpoints to replace the National Guard troops, which are being phased out at the end of May. TSA will reimburse the airports for the officers, who will be in place until the federal government deploys its own law enforcement officers, which TSA currently is hiring.



FAA Calls For Comments On LaGuardia Capacity

The Federal Aviation Administration has set June 20 as the due date for public comments on long-term approaches to allocating capacity at New York LaGuardia airport. The demand management options under consideration for the airport include both administrative and market-based strategies. FAA administrator Jane Garvey said it is appropriate to resume the LaGuardia capacity discussion since the agency expects "strong recovery" in passenger traffic next year. Terms of AIR-21 mandate that LaGuardia's slot restrictions will end in 2007. AIR-21 in 2000 eliminated slot restrictions at the airport for flights by new airlines and those serving smaller communities. The demand for new service at LaGuardia led to hundreds of exemption requests in the summer of 2000 and resulted in a large increase in delays. In December 2000, the agency capped the number of AIR-21 slot exemptions at 159 per day, reallocated these exemptions to airlines through a lottery and opened the proceeding to consider a long-term solution to the congestion problem at LaGuardia.



Senate Legislation Supports O'Hare Expansion

Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley (D) urged members of the Senate Commerce Committee to support legislation offered by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) that would codify an agreement to expand Chicago O'Hare International and construct a third Chicago-area airport near Peotone, Ill. During a March 21 committee hearing, Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate aviation subcommittee, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), ranking member of the Commerce Committee, said that expanding O'Hare is important to the Chicago area and to people throughout the country who use the aviation system. Despite the changes that Durbin made to his bill to address funding and environmental concerns, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) strongly opposes efforts to expand O'Hare. Fitzgerald said Durbin made the bill worse, not better. Woodie Woodward, Federal Aviation Administration associate administrator for airports, reminded lawmakers about the need to continue enhancing airport capacity despite the decline in air travel after Sept. 11. "By fiscal year 2004, we expect a return to normal levels of growth, expanding at an average annual rate of 4 percent for the next 10 years, reaching 1 billion passengers in fiscal year 2013," Woodward said.