Flight Delays: The Big Red Herring?

NOTE ON FLIGHT DELAYS:
In our "modern" age we are accustomed to ground-traffic delays. We allow for the possibility of delays when we set out for a meeting or an appointment. We know it's ridiculous to fix a precise to-the-minute time-estimate to a car trip: If we want to be sure to arrive on time, we have to leave early. Metro North's trains have schedules they usually conform to, but those trains, too, often run 5-10 minutes late.

We think nothing of ground-traffic delays. The time may have come to accept air-traffic delays, especially in light of the increased and increasing traffic-volume.

THE FAA AND FLIGHT-DELAYS
The main excuse the FAA has used to justify its so-called Airspace Redesign has been -- flight delays. Around the time the FAA began phasing in its "redesign," radio broadcasts were full of "horror stories" about flight delays: A woman named (IIRC) Sandy (or Cindy) Hanna was heard on the radio telling of being locked inside an airplane because of a 12-hour delay. She claimed that passengers were not allowed to leave the plane in order to, i.e, relax and wait inside the terminal and (after the plane's rest-rooms had been used, er, to capacity) relieve themselves, BUT, the one or more dogs on the flight were taken on walks intended for the same bodily errands. Come to think of it, I had a very similar experience back in 1987: The plane that was supposed to take me from Chicago to my Michigan hometown was stuck at O'Hare Airport for 4 hours because of vicious weather. In those days, most people didn't have cell-phones. So I couldn't let my boyfriend (now husband) know I'd be very late. He was on his way to my apartment, but I wasn't worried -- he had a key. One thing we both disregarded was -- my place had a burglar-alarm! Fortunately the police officer who showed up at the apartment accepted my boyfriend’s explanation. While all that was going on, I was sitting inside the plane many miles away, reading, and therefore, not minding the delay at all.

The point it -- delays are caused by weather, and I don't see any design or redesign changing that.

Radio stations report on ground-traffic delays nearly every day. Some stations also report airport-traffic delays, also as a matter of course. When I'm near a radio, I make note of these delays. below, you'll see a sample of when I recorded. Just about every time there are air-traffic delays, they ar cause by weather.

Radio stations are identified below by their call-letters and frequency, which is A.M unless otherwise noted, so that "a.m" and "p.m" refer to time of day. "Weather" refers to weather observed in connecticut, about 20 miles from LaGuardia Airport, so it's just "an approximation" of weather conditions at the airport at the time.

DELAYS-SAMPLE:

Keeping score:
Jul. 12: WEATHER: 7. COMPUTERS: 1. TRAFFIC-VOLUME: 0.
On Aug. 3 this score was updated to:

WEATHER: 11. COMPUTERS: 1. Unruly Passenger/s: 1. TRAFFIC-VOLUME: 0


DATA:

Tue. May 5, 2009, WOR710, 11 a.m: "... and of course airport delays due to low visibility [alluding to fog?] weather was: For past 2 days, almost continuous overcast, on and off drizzle.

Thursday May 14 WOR710 7 p.m: 3-hour delays at airports, "call ahead." Weather: Some brief "rain showers," not much rain overall. Sky overcast all day, some wind, not severe but definitely noticeable -- trees, not just tree-tops -- were swaying.

Wednesday May 27 WOR710, 7 a.m: 1-hour delays at LaGaurdia "due to low visibility/fog. Weather: There was some drizzle yesterday but not today. Today -- overcast but no rain.
WOR710, 2 p.m and later: 90 minutes (Newark?) to 3-hour (LaGuardia?) delays "due to fog." Later in the day, 3-hour delays were reported, it was made clear the delays were caused by fog (no pun intended!)

Thursday May 28, 8 a.m, 8:30 a.m, 9: a.m, 10:00 a.m: 2-hour arrival and departure delays at LaGuardia (and other airports?) "due to fog" and "because of fog." (Aside: There were also 2-hour delays on the George Washington Bridge).

Thursday June 4, 5:30 a.m: "Expect airport delays today due to the weather. Weather: Rain. It had rained the previous night, thought not much. "Showers" were forecast.

8:00 a.m: WOR710: "90 minute arrival delays at LaGuardia."

June 9, 11 a.m: 3-4 hour departure-delays at JFK. Some planes scheduled to depart at certain times had not yet reached JFK. WCBS880: "Usually LaGuardia is the worst [as far as delays] now it's the best," with 90-minute delays.

Weather: Strong lightening and thunder storms the previous night/early thins morning. (My house shook from the thunder!) By 11 a.m WCBS880 reported a "mix of sun and clouds" in New York City, forecast: "could be another shower coming in from Pennsylvania."

2 p.m, WSTC1400: 2 1/2 hour departure-delays at JFK and Newark, 90 minute delays at LaGuardia. "Bradley [airport] on or close to schedule." Weather: by now rain had pretty much stopped, 64 degrees F. "Showers" and "thunderstorms" forecast for the evening.

June 18 5:30 p.m WOR710: "Up to 3 hour delays at the airports." Weather: Rain since early morning, stopped briefly around 6 p.m, then resumed. At times gentle, other times heavy. Dark clouds all day.

7:00 p.m: 2-hour delays at JFK. 3-hour departure delays, 90 minute arrival delays Newark.

July 2, WABC770 1 p.m: United Airlines' computer is "back on line" after having malfunctioned in Chicago and caused "nationwide problems." [including, most likely, flight delays].

Update August 3:

July 20, Monday, WOR710, 11 am: “At the airports you have delays because of the weather.

Weather in CT: Persistent rain, but not downpour, since very early in the morning, but no wind. By noon the rain had stopped, while WABC reported “light drizzle” in N.Y City.

Monday Jul. 27, WIN1010, 9:30 pm: “airport delays because of the weather.” Weather: Storms (and lightening?) near LaGuardia reported on various radio stations. “Showers” forecast for later that night.

Wed. Jul. 29, WOR710 5:30 pm: “airport delays of about 4 hours.”
Weather: Rain since noon, not heavy but some radio stations were reporting flooding or chance of flooding elsewhere in the Tri-States region. I also heard earlier mention of “tornado-watch” in 1-2 NY or NJ counties.

Jul. 31, 5 pm, WOR710 and earlier on another station: 3 hour delays at airports.
Weather: Rain, flood-warning in some places, tornados were mentioned.

Aug. 1, 2009, WSTC1400 9:00 am” LaGuardia Airport has “many hours delay,” and one of its terminals evacuated, because a passenger claimed to have a bomb. In the following day/s, details were all over the newspapers so I won’t elaborate.
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