Travel Blog

Category: Air Travel

With recovery, expect more delays

Here's a downside to the budding economic turnaround, one frequent fliers aren't going to like much at all: flight delays are likely going to get worse as passengers loosen the iron grip on their wallets and take to the skies again.

That's the word from the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Brookings released a major report on air traffic congestion and delays this week; researchers had good things to say about Detroit and Metro Airport out in Romulus.

But the report also pointed out a number of snags in the nation's air transit system that are continuing to delay passengers and waste fuel, even with fewer planes taking to the skies because of the recession. Among the biggest problems, the folks at Brookings say:

-- Short-haul flights are becoming increasingly common and cause many delays, especially when they're clogging up capacity at big city hubs.

-- Federal investment in an improved air traffic control system has been slow to materialize.

-- Big city hubs like those in New York, Miami and San Francisco are at or over capacity, and likely to see traffic grow quickly in a post-recession era.

While the report points to a bleak outlook for travelers already frustrated by air delay hassles, there is a bit of a bright side: at least there's talk of an economic recovery, even if it's not quite here yet.