Washington — Airline officials, buffeted by criticism over delays, said Thursday that they will consider having passengers make connections at less-used airports rather than overcrowded hubs and might land some planes at less-crowded nearby airports.
Lawmakers and the Federal Aviation Administration said they stand ready to provide incentives to en-courage the airlines to re-route planes.
While speakers at a hearing of the House Appro-priations transportation subcommittee talked about the need to build new runways, install modern air traffic control equipment and redesign the routes that planes fly, federal lawmakers said rerouting some planes to less-used facilities would provide a quick, short-term solution to the increasing problem of delayed or canceled flights.
"There are airports with beautiful runways sitting empty," said Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., the subcommittee's chairman. "There is airport capacity beyond belief that could alleviate our problems overnight."
The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation that would make the airlines' voluntary consumer guidelines a legal contract with passengers; would require airlines to disclose on-time performance of flights when customers buy tickets or make reservations; and would require the industry to establish a timetable for reducing the number of flights delayed at least 30 minutes.
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