United Airlines CEO warns of crisis in global aviation system

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Tuesday, December 7 2:10 PM SGT

United Airlines CEO warns of crisis in global aviation system

CHICAGO, Dec 7 (AFP) -

The chairman of one of the top three airlines in the world joined the ranks of experts warning of a crisis in the overloaded global aviation system.

United Airlines Chairman James Goodwin repeated concerns that the international aviation infrastructure had failed to keep pace with the soaring demand for air travel and called for a rethink of international air space.

"I believe we are at a true point of crisis ... that is the crisis of inadequate capacity -- air traffic control and infrastructure -- to meet the continually growing demand for air travel," he said late Monday at a Gala awards dinner organized by the conference entitled Aviation in the 21st Century, Beyond Open Skies.

"Moving the demand we're projecting through the infrastructure we have will be like trying to flow Lake Michigan through a garden hose," he added

A huge expansion in capacity was required to avert the kind of crippling delays that plagued air travelers in Europe and the United States this summer, and not just in air traffic control systems, Goodwin said.

"Just as facilities within most airports will be at overflow capacity within the next decade, so will the feeder arteries," he said, citing airport road networks and car parks.

The next two to five years would be critical for overhauling the system particularly in Europe, which he identified as one of the worst aviation blackspots.

The area from the Benelux countries through Switzerland and northern Italy, which he said accounted for 50 percent of air traffic control delays, must be redesigned.

Repeating an appeal made by the International Air Transport Association, he called on European transport ministers to generate extra air space capacity by treating European airspace as a whole and ending constraints of national boundaries at their meeting in January.

Goodwin also called for plans to enhance the capacity of the European system to be speeded up.

And on the home front, he warned that a third of the largest 100 US airports could expect more than 20,000 hours of delays per year by 2012, if traffic expanded as US officials predict, Goodwin said.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has estimated that landings and take-offs will soar from the current 27 million to 35 million in the next 12 years, with passenger numbers hitting one billion over the same period.

-- Planes, fall, sky, etc (@ .), December 07, 1999

Answers

And on top of that add a dash (or more) of international Y2K repercussions.

*Sigh*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 07, 1999.


Diane,

While I have respect for Goodwin at UAL, he is talking about a world economic system that doesn't factor in any serious Y2k problems for the long term. If Ed Yourdon is correct in his guess of a year of disruption and up to 10 years of depression, then the airlines can forget about "crowded skies." It just won't be the problem he thinks. It troubles me that these CEO types are still trying to play the game as if there will be no world wide economic problems next year. And this is being done while the FAA struggles to patch together even a dependable working system, never mind a high volume one.

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), December 07, 1999.


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