WASHINGTON — Travelers finally shaking off bad memories of endless airline delays last summer probably are in for an unpleasant reminder of that terminal and tarmac pain.
That’s the prognosis the Transportation Department’s inspector general delivered to lawmakers Wednesday as he urged regulators, airlines and airports to keep trying to ease congestion but warned that their efforts will probably fall short before the busy summer season starts.
Weather, the effects of a softening economy and higher fuel prices on the industry and the effectiveness of government initiatives at congested airports all can play a role in easing delays.
But several busy airports — including the three New York-area airports, Chicago’s O’Hare and Minneapolis-St. Paul — must be watched “closely this summer because of severe peaking during part of the day,” Inspector General Calvin Scovel said at the hearing of the House aviation subcommittee.
“Northwest Airlines has scheduled 56 departures in one 15-minute window at Minneapolis-St. Paul, nearly three times the airport’s departure capacity for that window,” he said.
Committee chairman Jerry Costello, D-Ill., asked why an airline would do such a thing. Air Transport Association president and chief executive James May said he had no answer.
More than 31 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived late, were canceled or were diverted in February, the Transportation Department said last week, and on-time arrival results in 2007 were the second-worst on record.
The hearing came as an estimated 100,000 passengers scrambled to book new plans Wednesday after American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights because of jet-wiring inspections.
Scovel criticized the airline industry for not following a recommendation to establish uniform limits for providing service to stranded travelers.
