U.S. air travel growth faces radio crunch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The radio channels critical for U.S. air traffic control may be filled to the brim in five years, threatening prospects for meeting the growing demand for air travel, the Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday.

Officials said the crunch point -- when all frequencies are being used to the maximum extent consistent with safety -- might come as early as 2005.

"We can keep going for three to five years, but after five years, it begins to get really dicey," Steve Zaidman, the FAA's associate administrator for research and acquisitions, said in a comment relayed by the FAA.

Moreover, the FAA and the aviation industry are not able to do anything to solve the problem in under five years pending a decision on which of two rival solutions to pursue, Zaidman told the Washington Post, which carried a detailed account of the problem in Monday's editions.

Radio is the heart of aviation control, with a major airport requiring dozens of frequencies. Air traffic controllers must have separate channels to talk to pilots while they are taking off and landing. Dozens of separate frequencies are needed for the radar controllers in the surrounding area.

Twenty major centers need dozens more channels to guide planes at higher altitudes and automated weather reporting stations consume dozens, as do navigation aids and fire and rescue personnel.

"The radio spectrum is under pressure," said FAA spokesman Eliot Brenner. "In the future, perhaps five years or so, it will become increasingly difficult to find additional frequencies."

Brenner said Jane Garvey, the FAA administrator, was setting up a special panel made up of government and industry experts to look at the possible solutions.

The airlines argue that time is running out and are pushing for a system now being used in Europe, which could be in place in five years but would probably be outdated in less than 20 years, the Post reported.

The FAA and some other aviation groups prefer a long-term digital solution that could solve the problem for generations but would take nine to 12 years to implement, the paper said.

Brenner said the FAA had frequencies it was holding in reserve to avoid an early crunch. On top of that, he said there was a "buffer zone" around the distress frequency that could free up more channels.

"We're going to do whatever it takes to resolve the problem," he said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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