Air Safety

Air Traffic Safety vs. Capacity

This is interesting.... makes sense to me...

" ....there is an absolute limit to the number of airplanes any runway can handle, per hour, even in perfect weather. At an absolute minimum that limit should be enforced -- by rule and regulation -- for every commercial airport in the country. Currently it is not and -- unbelievably -- airlines are allowed to schedule more flights than the runways can handle in even perfect weather. It is madness."

Aha- so its not the weather only as we've been told so often. They built this system with NO leeway...

Even though I often think of flying in & out of O'Hare or Midway as equivalent in terms of MY time to get to the airport, check in etc...Probably Midway is a better bet in terms of flights being ON TIME... not as many big planes for International flights to mess up the time sequence. Airlines should only be allowed to sell seats for capacity, not over-capacity. But there is not really any incentive for them to do it the right way because all of their competitors are in the same situation. That's why there needs to be better safety regulations and oversight.

My cousing is a flight attendant for American and her husband is a pilot at American too. I'll definitely ask them about this. (I've had to call them last summer to ask for logistical help when my flight from Boston was completely cancelled -I was stranded and the weather wasn't even bad).