Drudge: A Duel in the Sky

Found on today's Drudge Report
NEW YORK: The summer travel season is building toward its Labor Day peak in
the United States, and fliers are growing ever angrier about delays. Now,
the beleaguered airline industry is trying to shift the blame onto an
unlikely villain: corporate jets, which the airlines claim are literally
crowding passenger planes out of the sky.

In what is shaping up as a smackdown between two of the least popular
constituencies out there - airlines and corporate chieftains - the argument
over the delays plaguing airports across America this summer is quickly
taking a populist turn.

It is a delicious twist. After all, the airlines themselves have been on the
receiving end of populist outrage, especially after delays that stranded
passengers for hours in overcrowded airliners. But now the industry's
lobbying group in Washington, the Air Transport Association, has charged
that the explosive growth of corporate jets is the real culprit.

The reality is that the root causes of the delays are manifold - airports
with little or no spare capacity, a 1950s air traffic control system, and
burgeoning demand for direct flights to smaller cities.

And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that airlines
are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that airlines
are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't land
at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.

In article .com,
wrote:

And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that airlines
are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't land
at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.

plus, is it really the airlines at fault when NIMBY rules?

--
Bob Noel
(goodness, please trim replies!!!)

"Gattman" wrote:
Found on today's Drudge Report
....
The reality is that the root causes of the delays are manifold -
airports with little or no spare capacity, a 1950s air traffic control
system, and burgeoning demand for direct flights to smaller cities.

I'd blame the hub-and-spoke model entirely. Everything else follows from
that choice.

Ironically direct flights between cities would be a more efficient use of
the NAS. Direct flights would also free up capacity and reduce crowding at
the current spoke airports.

Thanks to the hub-and-spoke model I've been in the airports of many large
cities and yet have never been outside those airports to see those cities
from the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoke-h...ution_paradigm

Bob Noel wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:

And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that
airlines are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't
land at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.

plus, is it really the airlines at fault when NIMBY rules?

Yes it is. The airlines have chosen the Hub and Spoke system which
concentrates all the aircraft into a few airports at pretty much the same
times. Blaming the NIMBY crowd would only work if you think the airlines
would be willing to flying to both North and South Whereeverville when they
are now just flying into Whereeverville.

wrote:
And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that airlines
are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't land
at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.


I saw a neat rebuttal recently that placed the blame on the airlines for
switching from fewer large jets to many regional jets. It was actually
the most logical explanation I've seen as the RJs DO use the same
airports as the big jets and they are bringing the masses to and from
those jets.

Matt

Matt Whiting wrote in
:

wrote:
And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that
airlines are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326

Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't
land at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.


I saw a neat rebuttal recently that placed the blame on the airlines
for switching from fewer large jets to many regional jets. It was
actually the most logical explanation I've seen as the RJs DO use the
same airports as the big jets and they are bringing the masses to and
from those jets.

Matt


IIRC, this article was in the Wall Street Journal about a week ago or
so.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

Marty Shapiro wrote:
Matt Whiting wrote in
:

wrote:
And the people who own and use private jets are quick to say that
airlines are offering them up as scapegoats...

http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=7257326
Blame-shifting, its the American way! Of course the airlines want to
cover up their ineptitude by blaming corporate jets. The bottlenecks
aren't enroute, it is at the airports. Most corporate jets don't
land at the airline hubs, they use smaller fields.

I saw a neat rebuttal recently that placed the blame on the airlines
for switching from fewer large jets to many regional jets. It was
actually the most logical explanation I've seen as the RJs DO use the
same airports as the big jets and they are bringing the masses to and
from those jets.

Matt


IIRC, this article was in the Wall Street Journal about a week ago or
so.


That may well be where I saw it, but I read a lot of different
publications and they blur together after a week or two! It was a well
reasoned article in my opinion, much better than some of those preceding it.

Matt