FAA launches faster East Coast routes to avoid congestion

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched nearly 170 latest flight routes which might be shorter and faster, aiming to ease congestion within the eastern US

It is a component of a seven-year effort by the FAA and airlines to redraw route maps for high-altitude aircraft, the agency said on Monday.

The FAA launched 169 latest routes last week and is abandoning older ones that were longer and more zigzag. These longer routes were designed for aircraft that use ground radar, not the GPS that modern aircraft use. The latest ones will probably be more direct.

The latest paths are mostly above 18,000 feet when planes fly, and are designed to ease congestion on popular routes. Some of the brand new routes cross the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

“The change helps prevent delays by giving the agency more power to direct traffic to specific routes based on the aircraft’s destination,” the FAA said in a release. “When the weather kicks in, controllers will even have more flexibility. Finally, fewer convergence points and simpler flows increase safety.”

The FAA estimated that the brand new routes would cut back travel times by about 6,000 minutes a 12 months.

The change comes just before the summer travel season, when airline executives expect heavy traffic. Pressure from the airline industry is mounting on the FAA to deal with congestion and delays, although airline staffing issues have also played a job in exacerbating the disruption.

Last 12 months, 1.7 million flights, or greater than 20% of flights operated by U.S. airlines, were delayed, up from 1.5 million, or about 16%, in 2019, before the pandemic, in line with a flight tracking website FlightAware. So far this 12 months, 22% of flights operated by US airlines have been delayed, in line with the web site.

Some of the brand new routes are for flights to and from Florida, where airlines face obstacles reminiscent of frequent storms, military activities and space launches. Last month, the FAA said it might bear in mind disruptions to airline flights within the approval of rocket launches.

“American has long been an advocate of unlocking additional high-altitude routes along the East Coast, and we’re optimistic that these will deliver significant advantages to our customers and team members.” american airlines Chief Operating Officer David Seymour said in an emailed statement.

Separately, several airlines, incl JetBlue Airways AND United Airlines are reducing flights within the New York and Washington areas attributable to a shortage of FAA air traffic controllers as a part of a plan to cut back disruption.