Editorial: Going nowhere fast

Friday, Aug. 3, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

F ly anywhere this summer? Chances are the flights were late, delayed or canceled.

U.S. Transportation Department statistics show that 26 percent of the nation's flights were late or canceled during the first five months of this year - the worst record since 1995. Officials from FlightStats, a private company that tracks air travel data, told The Washington Post in a story on Wednesday that 20,000 flights were canceled in June, and only 69 percent of June's flights arrived on time.

So much for the friendly skies. Air passengers' patience is wearing thin through the seemingly constant delays, cancellations and late arrivals.

Federal Aviation Administration officials told the Post that the problems have been caused by a combination of bad weather and increases in flights. Airline executives say the delays are a result of the FAA's failure to aggressively pursue equipping the nation's air traffic control operations with modern satellite technology, which could improve handling increased airport traffic.

Labor unions blame airlines for cutting too many positions, including those of pilots. The nation's flight problems likely have been caused by all of the above. The question is what are the FAA, airline and union officials going to do about it? Certainly no one can control the weather, but the FAA could have installed better traffic control equipment before now. Recent agency promises that such upgrades will be done in 10 years aren't good enough.

Airlines shouldn't be cutting key staffing positions to improve their bottom lines. For example, Northwest Airlines alone canceled 650 flights from last Friday to Monday because it lacked pilots to fly the planes.

At a time when local, state and federal governments are urging Americans to use their cars less and use mass transportation more, it seems tougher to do so for long trips. Traveling by air is getting to be as plodding and cumbersome as traveling by Amtrak, the nation's poorly funded railway system. The FAA, airlines and unions need to stop pointing fingers at each other and start finding solutions.