The most immediate concern is weather delays, since the FAA says 70 percent of all delays are weather-related. The FAA and the airlines get together on a conference calls every two hours from the FAA's Air Traffic Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, to discuss weather and consider flight pattern changes. Even with that effort, though, weather-related delays in June were up 16 percent over June 1999. Elsewhere, computer programs, which track planes in the air traffic control system and provide more direct routing and less waiting time for arriving flights, are being phased in at several airports. In the last two years, officials say, these steps to reduce delays have saved 18.4 million delay minutes.
Wake turbulence is the violent wind generated by large airplanes in flight.
It is most dangerous when a plane attempts to land close behind a large airliner. Controllers deal with the problem by spacing planes farther apart. Researchers say the new technology allows them to track wake turbulence, allowing them to safely land up to six more planes an hour. But easing the problem in the air doesn't solve the problem of crowded airports. Many, like Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, are at capacity and have nowhere to grow.