Holidays will again test air travel bottleneck

? Fewer people are expected to fly this holiday season, but travelers shouldn’t expect a full reprieve from the horrid flight delays of Thanksgivings past, especially if they need to land anywhere near New York City.

Despite some recent improvements, the Big Apple’s three major airports continue to be the country’s worst air travel bottleneck.

Through the first nine months of the year, they ranked first, second and third worst in on-time arrivals among the 31 major U.S. air hubs, according to federal statistics.

The problem doesn’t affect just New Yorkers. Because such a large percentage of the nation’s flights pass through the city sometime during any given day, delays here have a tendency to ripple elsewhere.

In 2007, nearly three-quarters of all delays in the U.S. could be traced to a problem in New York, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The logjam has received a lot of attention over the past two years, with mixed results.

The FAA tinkered with takeoff and landing procedures and limited the number of flights allowed at all three airports. Airlines adjusted their schedules. Air traffic controllers settled a labor dispute. The military even opened up restricted airspace off the East Coast.