Transcripts

President Bush Files A New Flight Plan For The Airlines To Follow

SUSIE GHARIB: President Bush wants to make the skies a little friendlier. This year, the airlines have landed their worst on-time performance since 1995. As the holiday season approaches, the president outlined today a series of steps to improve the odds that air travelers will make it to their destinations on time. Stephanie Dhue reports.

STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: The president calls the airlines chronic flight delays an epidemic. And with 27 million travelers set to fly over the Thanksgiving holiday, the president promised help.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These failures carry some real costs for the country, not just in the inconvenience they cause, but in the business they obstruct and family gatherings they cause people to miss.

DHUE: The president outlined a series of immediate steps to reduce delays, including creating Thanksgiving express lanes by opening up unused military airspace to commercial traffic. He`ll also impose a holiday moratorium on non-essential FAA maintenance projects and proposes doubling the compensation travelers can receive if bumped from a flight to a minimum of $800 instead of the current $400. At a House Transportation hearing, executives from Jetblue and Delta told lawmakers they are taking their own steps to be prepared this holiday season. Jetblue CEO Dave Barger acknowledged past problems, but says passengers shouldn`t fear flying this holiday season.

DAVE BARGER, CEO, JETBLUE: There`s almost scare stories that are out there regarding how bad it`s going to be and that`s not the case. We just went through a July-August time frame that was actually the load factors were probably as high, over an extended period of time.

DHUE: Longer term, the administration and lawmakers are considering an overhaul of the air traffic control system. But observers say that next generation system is 15 years away. In the meantime, Delta CEO Richard Anderson says the U.S. must continue to upgrade air traffic technology and air field capacity.

RICHARD ANDERSON, CEO, DELTA: We need to take all the steps in the short term to meet demand and we`ve got to make the investment as a country and the commitment as a country to implement the next gen system in order to meet the billion passengers that are going to be flying the airways over the course of the next five to 10 years.

DHUE: The administration is considering charging airlines higher usage fees during peak travel times to reduce delays. But the airlines say the government should focus on increasing capacity, not raising prices. Stephanie Dhue, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.