JetBlue Airways CEO pleads ATC reform

JetBlue Airways CEO David Barger recently stressed the need to overhaul air traffic control systems to improve operational efficiency.

Barger strongly advocated the ATC reforms saying that this was a dire necessity to improve mobility in the skies and prevent waste. He said that bringing effective reforms in the next-generation air traffic control system isn’t optional, but quite imperative.

He pointed out that in the 1950s prop planes operated flights to New York from Boston in less than an hour, but it currently takes nearly an hour and 35 minutes for the flights to operate on the same route.  This is also because the official airline guide logs that flight, in a jet, for the stated duration. He said that this was certainly crazy, and that everybody was happily and readily accepting it. Barger said that efficiency was possible only when effective ATC reforms were brought through.

Providing operational details about JetBlue Airways, Barger said that the airline’s profit has reduced by US$7-8 million in Q3 2011 due to disastrous impact of Hurricane Irene that heavily battered the eastern US this August.

Barger also said that this was particularly not good times for the airline. JetBlue Airways had deferred its plan to buy 8 Airbus A320 aircrafts from 2014 and 2015 to 2017, and has also converted 30 A320 aircrafts to A321s scheduled for delivery between 2013 and 2016.