Duel in the skies: Major airlines vs. private jets

[Naim 6]

Interesting issue, this.

 

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IHT

Duel in the skies: Major airlines vs. private jets

By Nelson D. Schwartz

Sunday, August 26, 2007

 

NEW YORK: The summer travel season is building toward its Labor Day peak in the United States, and fliers are growing ever angrier about delays. Now, the beleaguered airline industry is trying to shift the blame onto an unlikely villain: corporate jets, which the airlines claim are literally crowding passenger planes out of the sky.

 

In what is shaping up as a battle between two of the least popular constituencies out there - airlines and corporate chieftains - the argument over the delays plaguing airports across America this summer is quickly taking a populist turn.

 

It is a delicious twist. After all, the airlines themselves have been on the receiving end of populist outrage, especially after delays that stranded passengers for hours in overcrowded airliners. But now the industry's lobbying group in Washington, the Air Transport Association, has charged that the explosive growth of corporate jets is the real culprit. The reality is that the root causes of the delays are manifold - airports with little or no spare capacity, a 1950s air traffic control system, and burgeoning demand for direct flights to smaller cities.

 

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