FAA: Record flight delays in 2000

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Thunderstorms, surging air traffic and a dearth of new airport runways conspired to make 2000 the Year of the Flight Delay.

A record 450,289 flights were delayed last year -- 20 percent more than during the previous year, which had 374,116 delays, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday. The previous record year was 1990 with 392,803 delays.

The FAA blamed almost 69 percent of the delays (309,482) on bad weather. The FAA said thunderstorms were unusually disruptive of air traffic in the spring through late autumn.

Volume, the second-leading cause, accounted for 63,048 delays (14 percent). That is a 42.3 percent increase over the previous year, the FAA said.

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More than one fourth of the nation's volume-related flight delays involved New York's Laguardia Airport, which loosened restrictions on the number of flights during the last four months of the year, producing a surge in volume there. Laguardia's 18,026 volume delays in 2000 represented 28.6 percent of the national total.

The FAA also said runway and taxiway construction and repair work also contributed to delays at airports in Boston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston Intercontinental, Laguardia and Phoenix.

On Wednesday, the Air Transport Association, which represents the nation's major airlines, called on the FAA to speed up modernization of its air traffic control system to help alleviate congestion.

In the past, the FAA has blamed airlines themselves for congestion, saying they book more flights at peak periods than airports can handle.

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Federal Aviation Administration
Air Transport Association

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