Easing Gridlock at New York City Airports
With a cross-country flight scheduled at the crack of dawn tomorrow, I’ve got air travel on the brain right now. Airplanes (and airports for that matter) both fascinate and frustrate me. But as much as I love to travel, I must admit I am not an easy traveler, as least as far as air travel goes. Nothing seems to stress me out as quickly as unnecessary customer service hiccups and mishaps when flying.
Living in New York as long as I have, you’d expect I would be used to congestion and traffic. And when it comes to the city’s sidewalks, shops, and restaurants, I probably am. But when it comes to non-weather delays and service interruptions at our city airports? Fuhgettaboutit.
There was an excellent page-one story in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about why congestion and delays have gotten so out of hand, particularly at New York’s major airports. While reporter Scott McCartney does an excellent job of explaining the myriad industry changes and travel trends that cooked up this fine kettle of fish, what really stood out was a comment from an insurance industry executive from Durham, N.C. who said that, given a choice between more daily flights on smaller planes or fewer flights on larger planes, he’d take the former. Not me.
As a frequent business traveler, I can certainly appreciate the convenience that having a full schedule of flights to choose from brings. I’ve been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic more than a few times when my scheduled flight was due to take-off. (I tend to cut things close, which is why no one at S&A likes to travel with me). Knowing that my carrier had another four flights leaving that same evening did wonders to keep my stress levels in check.
But as Wall Street Journal reporter Scott McCartney pointedly explains in yesterday’s story, it’s not all blue skies with the more-flights-smaller-planes approach. Airlines have used smaller planes to bulk up their schedules to the point where the major airports simply don’t have room for all of them. There’s simply no room at the inn… err… gates. My favorite airline blogger also offers some insightful commentary on this issue.
While the article says that more than 30% of flights nationwide arrived late in June with delays of just over an hour, my experiences at LaGuardia were significantly worse. Heck, if I land at LaGuardia a mere hour behind schedule I count my lucky stars. Perhaps if the southern insurance executive in McCartney’s story was a local, more frequent user of that airport, he wouldn’t be so quick to vote in favor of quantity over quality. Given a choice, I’ll vote for fewer flights on bigger planes if that means the airlines will ultimately improve their on-time performance.