Air Travel

It's now official. A story running in all the mainstream media outlets reports how air traffic delays are at an all time high. Don't you just love it when they report something that most people already know?

One wonders when the other shoe will fall. One thing that apparently is going to happen is they are going to a new air traffic control system. I suspect this is what's behind all the new found mainstream attention. Of all the fears associated with flying, the fear of dying in a crash has to be number one. New air traffic system? You can count on some published reports on how it will compromise safety and so forth. Thus a preemptive strike explaining how it will eliminate or a least reduce delays.

I don't really think the new system will compromise safety at all. Look at the way air traffic dropped after 9/11 and you will understand that the industry most certainly does not want any air crashes tied to it. So the new system (tied to GPS will likely deliver on what is advertised and help cut delays.

But they will come back. Air travel pretty much has a monopoly on public transit these days and it will only increase as the population does. My perception is that the delay problem is worse in Europe, even with a functioning rail network, largely because population is much more concentrated there. Why then do we not put resources into developing a rail network here?