Indeed, air business is reaching historic highs, but flight delays are too. During 2006, more than 23% of flights were either late or cancelled. If it is not an overbooking situation, it is weather, if it is not weather, it is a malfunction; the possibilities are unlimited. Even the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is aware of the situation, but its actions are virtually useless. The delays will not only be the same, but are expected to worsen up during the next coming years (“on-time”, 2007).
The FAA’ in conjunction with the airlines thinks that the answer is to change the computer systems, so it is asking the congress for more funding money. This funding is nothing more than the so famous user fees, which will certainly improve the FAA situation, but will mean a huge catastrophe for the general aviation users. Air traffic controllers believe that more runways could help, but that is just an unrealistic idea since bigger airports are already surrounded by urbanization. Either answer takes a lot of time and a lot of money, only meaning that delays are here to stay.
Definition and Causes
A flight delay is any change from the