Millennium Fears Will Keep Airports Clear (San Francisco Examiner)

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Just fly the friendly skies... a bit less... and not in certain countries.

Diane

Millennium fears will keep airports clear
By David Armstrong
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Sunday, December 12, 1999
)1999 San Francisco Examiner

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/stories/12/Bairlines_sun.dtl

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Airplanes and airports -- jammed since Thanksgiving with holiday travelers -- will empty out, comparatively speaking, on New Year's Eve and the long millennium weekend.

People are hunkering down by the fireside instead of jetting off to distant climes. The major commercial airlines, reading the portents, are trimming their number of flights accordingly.

Moreover, although airlines say fears of Y2K computer bugs are way overblown, some airlines are prudently keeping planes out of the air at midnight. Many are also cutting back international flights as carriers chose to err on the side of caution. For example:

American Airlines normally cancels 10 to 12 percent of its New Year's flights, thanks to a drop in demand, said company spokesman John Hotard. "This year, that has increased to 20 percent."

American will have 17 flights aloft at midnight Dec. 31. All but one will be on trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific routes. All will land in daylight, when it won't matter if runway lights conk out.

In Auckland, New Zealand, the first major city to greet the new millennium, Air New Zealand will have no aircraft in the air at midnight local time. Worldwide, the carrier is canceling 30 percent of its international flights on Dec. 31, up from 5 to 10 percent on a normal New Year's Eve, according to Leigh Oldach of Victoria King Public Relations, which represents ANZ in the United States. The carrier's daily flights between Auckland and Los Angeles are not affected.

On domestic U.S. flights, cutbacks are less extensive, with major carriers reporting slight or normal schedule adjustments.

"Every year, this is a low demand time, so we do a schedule reduction," said United Airlines spokesman Matthew Triaca. "This year, we are doing a bit more because we are seeing pretty soft demand."

United -- the world's largest airline and the major tenant at San Francisco International Airport, with just over half of all SFO's flights and passengers -- will trim 28 percent of its flights worldwide on New Year's Eve, Triaca said.

On New Year's Day, United will reduce flights systemwide by 13 percent, returning to normal Monday, Jan. 3, when the road warriors of the business world go back into travel mode.

No major carrier reports trying to increase consumer demand by discounting fares. If you're flying on the holiday, you'll be paying regular ticket prices.

Despite view-with-alarm media reports about potentially catastrophic Y2K computer failures, the airlines say they are Y2K-compliant, expect no big problems and see no extraordinary anxiety about Y2K among passengers -- at least not in the United States.

"Traffic is light the entire day of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but not because people are afraid to be in an airplane," said Alaska Airlines spokesman Jack Evans. "People are staying close to home and celebrating with their friends."

According to Evans, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines decided back in July to condense its holiday schedule, canceling 18 percent of its flights Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. One daily flight between SFO and Portland and another daily flight between SFO and Seattle have been scrubbed.

Like airlines, airports have been gearing up for the big night for some time, testing systems and putting back-up plans into place.

The Federal Aviation Administration says that all its systems are fully Y2K-compliant and that all federally regulated airports have reported meeting government Year 2000 safety requirements.

At SFO, officials will host FAA administrator Jane Garvey at a New Year's Eve Champagne reception. Garvey, whose agency is in charge of overseeing air safety, is flying in from Washington, D.C., to demonstrate the safety of air travel. Her plane is scheduled to touch down just past the midnight hour, at12:07 a.m. Jan. 1.

"For the last couple of years, we've gone through extensive testing," said SFO spokesman Ron Wilson, adding that "senior staff has been instructed to be here New Year's Eve. There's about 15 of us, with additional staff on call."

According to Wilson, testing in simulated crisis situations has been especially intense in the second half of this year, with lighting, clocks and other airport mainstays going through rigorous tests. SFO officials feel confident that the airport -- the Bay Area's biggest and the nation's fifth-busiest, with 40 million passengers yearly -- is ready.

SFO expects traffic to be down 20 percent. "Historically, New Year's Eve is not a busy time anyway," Wilson said. "There are so many parties, events at hotels, dinners with friends. The last thing people want is to be in an airplane at midnight."

Throughout the industry, airline spokespeople say Y2K fears -- while extant -- have eased.

Northwest Airlines spokeswoman Kathy Peach said the airline has heard less passenger anxiety of late than it did 18 months ago, when the Air Transport Association, an industry group, began polling consumers about Y2K issues.

Peach says Northwest has canceled 15 percent of its flights on New Years' Eve -- about normal. "We do this almost every holiday," she said, "but it's getting more attention this year because of the millennium and Y2K."

Northwest has scrubbed five trans-Atlantic and five trans-Pacific flights, none involving service to SFO, according to Peach.

Singapore Airlines, which flies to Pacific Rim destinations from SFO, says it started readying computers for 2000 four years ago and is confident that all systems are go. "Y2K is going to be about little inconveniences here and there, not big stuff," said SIA spokesman James Boyd.

SIA, which claims to have the world's youngest fleet of aircraft, isn't worried about any big things going wrong, but plans to make sure that none of its aircraft is aloft at midnight Greenwich Mean Time -- midnight for international aviation, Boyd said.

Lufthansa Airlines spokeswoman Beth Purdue said the Frankfurt-based carrier has no problems at all putting planes in the air at midnight, but will cut four of its 80 trans-Atlantic flights on New Year's Eve due to low consumer demand. Lufthansa's daily flights between SFO and Frankfurt and its thrice-weekly service between SFO and Munich will not be affected.

Travelers heading north of the border will find some temporary cutbacks by Air Canada, said spokesman Dick Griffith. The red-eye 10:30 p.m. flight to Toronto will not fly on New Year's Eve, nor will the carrier's afternoon flight to Calgary or its Saturday flight to Montreal.

"This is our normal New Year's Eve schedule. It has nothing to do with Y2K," said Griffith, who characterized Air Canada as fully Y2K-compliant. Cutbacks are due to soft demand, he said.

Soft demand for Dec. 31 has also inspired Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways to consolidate several Asia-North America routes. Cathay spokesman Gus Whitcomb said people on flights between Los Angeles and Hong Kong and Vancouver and Hong Kong will be re-routed, shuttled to SFO and put aboard Cathay's daily flight to Hong Kong from San Francisco instead. Typically low holiday traffic doesn't make it economical to operate many flights on New Year's Eve, he said.

Jitters over the Y2K readiness of air traffic control, navigation and airport systems -- especially in Latin America, Africa and Asia, including Russia -- are one reason for the low demand for international flights on Dec. 31-Jan. 1.

From Argentina to Pakistan, some countries still have not finished purging their air traffic guidance centers of the millennium bug -- missing by more than two months a Sept. 30 deadline set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body.

With the crucial clock rollover less than three weeks away, late modifications to critical systems leave inadequate time for testing, Y2K experts warn.

Controllers in potential trouble regions such as Asia and South America plan to allow more air space between flights. Jetliners are being advised to carry extra fuel.

Worldwide, major airlines have spent more than $2.billion to rid flight computers and reservation systems of the millennium bug.

For travelers who do find themselves airborne at midnight, the moment won't pass unnoticed. United spokesman Triaca said the friendly skies will get a bit friendlier then: The airline plans to serve free Champagne.

Examiner news services contributed to this report.



-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 12, 1999

Answers

So there is a small chance that cpr will make a flight. Although I believe Southwest has cancelled ALL flights on news year eve and he was so looking forward to using that airlien. I wonder who he will fly with now or will he be a cop out....

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), December 12, 1999.

Prediction: Garvey never gets on the plane.

-- semper paratus (always@ready.now), December 12, 1999.

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