FAA, Airport And Airline Executives Meet In Chicago

If you've ever flown through Chicago's O'Hare Airport -- either as a pilot or passenger -- then you probably know what the "penalty box" is. If not, it's one of several areas on the airport ramp where arriving aircraft have to sit and wait when no gates are available. About ten minutes in a penalty box, with the terminal so tantalizingly close, and you'll realize that an old woman with a walker can beat you to the gate.

Delays at O'Hare are worse this year thaljn in the past four years, according to airport records. That's why FAA Administrator Marion Blakey was in Chicago Wednesday, for a sit-down with airport officials and airline executives.

"We cannot let schedules at O'Hare hold the whole system hostage," Blakey told the executives. "You can't control the weather, but you can control your schedule."

While on-time performance at O'Hare is a miserable 67-percent, the FAA wants airlines system-wide to arrive and depart on schedule at least 82-percent of the time.

"If it weren't for O'Hare, we'd be making that goal," Blakey told the airlines at the closed-door meeting.

Blakey's boss, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, agreed wholeheartedly. "We are going to do something about this problem right here and now," he promised, raising concerns that O'Hare, like New York's LaGuardia, might soon be subject to caps on the number of flight operations.

FMI: www.faa.gov