Bush tackles air traffic congestion

WASHINGTON - Ahead of the holiday travel crunch, President Bush ordered steps Thursday to reduce air traffic congestion and long delays that have left passengers stranded.

The most significant change is that the Pentagon will open unused military airspace from Florida to Maine to create "a Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial airliners. It will be open next week for five days — Wednesday through Sunday — for the busiest days of Thanksgiving travel.

Officials said the chief benefit would be to speed takeoffs from New York airports, particularly during bad weather.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21818657/

And I agree with the following posters: These "lanes" should be open to all traffic, at all times. They can clear them if and when the Taliban AF attacks.

It's NOT the lack of air traffic lanes stupid! It's getting people through YOUR security BS, and getting the planes airborne and llanded with enough distance between them. If an airport only has 3 runways, granting additional air traffic lanes isn't going to do a damn thing!

Geesh! The guy thinks he needs HOV lanes in the sky!!!!

....Yes napi21 get it....it is airport congestion that is the culprit not the skys...if the parking lot isnt large enough it wont matter how many roads lead to it.....

I think the only way to relieve the congestion in the sky is to entice major corporations to move their HQ offices to other places such as Omaha, St Louis, ect....the skies are full back there because the wealth is concentrated to much.

If Shrubby has his hand in things, they are sure to be all fucked up!

Active Military Operation Areas (MOAs) make it very difficult for an aircraft on an offshore routing to deviate for weather or to get more direct routing ("cut a corner" of the MOA). Sometimes, a pilot might have to declare an emergency to deviate into an MOA to avoid, say, a line of thunderstorms. Without the declaration of emergency, the pilot could be subject to violations of the FARs. Since pilots are very hesitant to declare emergencies, some end up flying through weather that should be avoided.

This will take a some pressure off of air traffic control and pilots for the next few days, to be sure. But MOA access would really make a big difference in the summer months, when thunderstorms wreak havoc on the NE corridor and the N-S Atlantic offshore routes.