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Editor: James T. Crouse
Profession: Aviation Accident Attorney

Category: Aviation News

Frieda fully understands the airlines' plight with the rising cost of fuel. Frieda fully understands why the airlines' have to pass on some of the cost to consumers. What Frieda doesn't understand is why the airlines aren't looking for more efficient ways to run their operations - and yes, sometimes money has to be spent in order to make money or to spend less.

Such is the case with an upgrade to a satellite-based system air traffic which has been stalled in the planning stages for over 10 years - shocker! ! Now let's fully understand this. There has been a program available for at least 10 years that could save the airlines billions of dollars in wasted fuel and had it already been in place this year, more than $5 billion would have been saved - yet they do nothing for 10 years!?! Why are they content with a World War II era traffic system when they could save billions in fuel costs, triple air traffic capacity, reduce delays, improve safety, and curb greenhouse gas emissions??? The new network is dubbed NextGen - and would enable planes to fly the shortest distance between two points: for you geometry buffs and everyone else on the planet (except perhaps the airline industry), it's called a straight line!

Supposedly funding delays and complex nature of the switchover have grounded the project. So, they're more than willing to pass on the increased gas cost to the consumer -would it not have been more prudent to have passed on some of the cost of this system - which would be much more cost effective in the long run? The government doesn't expect this to be up and running until 2020 - but without a major commitment, it may not happen then either.

"The United States has been to the moon and back. I think the public deserves that same level of effort for our national airspace system," Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a recent interview. Then why doesn't the FAA push this forward. NextGen could save more than $10 billion annually by 2025 - based on TODAY'S fuel prices - these are FAA's projection! So why is the FAA not moving on this? What the airlines have been doing has been likened to using a typewriter when all the others are using a computer. Frieda would add - and charging the consumer for that anitquated system and their failure to modernize.

The current way to fly is to have the airliners move in a single-file along a narrow highway in the sky marked by radio beacons, zigzagging from one beacon to the next, wasting hundreds gallons of fues. Southwest Airlines - one of the nation's leaders - is already investing in the technology - even before the system is completely up and running. Stating that getting planes off the ground just one minute faster would save the airline $25 million in fuel a year - "we're pouring gas down the drain." Such forward thinking is what keeps Southwest a cut above the other airlines - instead of excuses why something can't be done, they seem to push ahead for the betterment of their airline and their customers.

Why doesn't the government and the airline industry as a whole follow suit?