End of protest by pilots could mean fewer delays at McCarran

Monday, July 17, 2000 | 10:30 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

With commercial airline pilots dropping their "land and hold short operation" boycott, officials at McCarran International Airport hope that incoming flight delays will diminish.

"Hopefully, we will feel a ripple effect from the flights we get from large airports that were heavily affected by the land and hold short operation, which is commonly called (by its acronym) 'LAHSO,' " said Hilarie Grey, Clark County Aviation Department spokeswoman.

"It (the end of the boycott) may help alleviate some delays."

Last Friday, commercial airline pilots dropped their LAHSO boycott, which was a protest to certain government-required runway procedures. The dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration had threatened to disrupt travel during the busy summer season.

The pilots had maintained the landing procedure was not safe in some cases. The FAA said it would make changes that addressed the pilots' concerns and issue new rules governing LAHSO by Aug. 14.

When a pilot is asked to land and hold short, the plane is expected to land and then stop before crossing an intersecting runway, allowing another plane to land or take off on that strip. It increases the number of planes that can use an airport at the same time.

Pilots still may refuse to land and hold short if they believe conditions are unsafe. However, during the boycott they routinely declined tower requests to land and hold short.

"There are lots of reasons that cause delays," Grey said, noting that flight delays are up at McCarran by 12.1 percent this year.

"One big factor is inclement weather in other areas like fog in San Francisco or thunderstorms in Texas that delay those flights here. LAHSO contributes to that, but it is not a huge factor at McCarran like it is at bigger airports."

According to the FAA, McCarran at this time last year had 6.3 delays per 1,000 takeoffs and landings and now has 7.1 percent delays per 1,000 such operations. McCarran has about 800 takeoffs and landings per day, Grey said.

As a result of its agreement with the FAA, the Air Line Pilots Association said that, effective today, it will lift its recommendation that its 58,000 members refuse to comply with landing clearances using LAHSO.

The pilots association said the LAHSO boycott will remain in place for flights in Canada, where it contends procedures still need to be improved to ensure safety.

Among the association's concerns are pilot training, distances between planes, types of airports where the system is used and whether foreign pilots would use the procedure.

The FAA announcement did not report what its order would include, but the pilots association said it "is consistent with all criteria that ALPA had identified as necessary for safe operations.

"The FAA has instructed air traffic controllers not to issue LAHSO clearances for any runway configuration that fails to fulfill all the required LAHSO safeguards," the association said. Sun reporter

Ed Koch and the Associated Press contributed to this report.