DOT Secretary talks caps, auctions and delays

Under fire for a controversial plan to auction flight slots at New York airports, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters took refuge under friendlier skies at O'Hare International Airport Wednesday.

Although O'Hare has long been fingered as the epicenter of nationwide delays, Peters took aim at New York during a news conference.

"Delays at LaGuardia, JFK and Newark airports affect flights nationwide," Peters said. "And now a new analysis of our most recent delay data shows just how these delays are affecting Chicago's historic efforts at O'Hare."

Less than half the flights between O'Hare and New York are on time compared to an 80 percent on-time average for other flights coming into Chicago, officials said.

The department is taking steps to fix the problem in New York, Peters said, with new construction and technology. She added that plans to auction slots at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark starting Jan. 12 should solve another industry woe - high airfares, which rose by 8 percent domestically in the second quarter.

The policy will increase competition, which means lower prices, Peters reasoned.

But the Air Transport Association, an organization representing major airlines, has sued the government over the issue, saying selling slots is beyond its authority. ATA spokesman David Castelveter called the plan an "ill-conceived scheme" and said it was unfair to airlines that had spent millions of dollars on airport infrastructure. He noted that New York is the most competitive market in the country already.

Peters praised O'Hare for its modernization program that involves building six parallel runways. The new construction, which has drawn fire from the surrounding communities of Bensenville and Elk Grove Village, is one reason the FAA on Friday is lifting a flight cap at O'Hare instituted in 2004 to reduce chronic delays.

The flight cap limited arrivals to 88 an hour instead of 90 to 130. But it's not clear if ending the cap will mean a big difference for travelers, given the slump in the airline industry, sparked by high fuel prices.

"We've cut capacity," United spokesman Megan McCarthy said.

From January to the end of September 2007, O'Hare had 699,626 flight operations - 76,828 in the month of September.

For the same time period in 2008, operations dipped to 673,815 year-to-date and 72,915 in September alone.