Bush proposes steps to ease airline congestion

WASHINGTON • The government is opening some military airspace to ease airline congestion over Thanksgiving and Christmas, though the effort is likely to have only limited results. And if the weather's bad, all bets are off.

That doesn't guarantee smooth travel, even when coupled with an expected decrease in passengers. Travel over the Thanksgiving holiday will drop for the first time in six years because of the economic slowdown and fewer airline flights, the auto club AAA forecast Tuesday. The travel club says 41 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home. That's down from 41.6 million last year.

President George W. Bush announced Tuesday that he's expanding the Thanksgiving express lanes this year to include military air corridors in the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast. That's in addition to the East Coast corridors.

The military uses the space for exercises but often makes some available to commercial planes on an ad hoc basis.

About 24 million passengers are expected to fly over the 12 days around Thanksgiving, said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents the airline industry. That's about 10 percent fewer than last year, but airlines also have removed about 10 percent of their capacity from the system, meaning planes will be just as crowded. Castelveter said planes will be about 90 percent full at peak times, and full in key markets.

Making highways in the sky that are normally restricted to the military open to commercial airliners may get planes from one airport to another faster, but airliners face bottlenecks at the nation's busier airports.

Doug Church, a spokesman for the air traffic controllers union, said one result of airplanes arriving faster could be more planes circling busy airports and running low on fuel.

Bush also announced that his administration was working with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Security Administration and airlines to make more staff available to speed check-ins and boarding. He also said regulations raising the amount airlines must pay travelers for lost bags and failing to disclose hidden fees will be in place by the Christmas crush.