Not Quite Ready When You Are

"I have better things to do," complained Banker Robert Miller last week during a preflight delay in Los Angeles. At Denver's Stapleton Airport, detained Executive Helene Eckstein declared, "No planes arrive on time any more."

Such plaints are widespread as the nation's summer travel season begins, and last week the Federal Aviation Administration gave statistical confirmation. So far this year, the number of flights delayed is 55% higher than last year, although total air traffic is up only 9%. The carriers and their pilots put the blame on a shortage of FAA controllers: 13,300, compared with 16,375 before the 1981 strike that led to mass firings. But FAA Chief Donald Engen, who testified last week before a House subcommittee looking into air-traffic control, argued that most delays result from unrealistic airline schedules. As the FAA points out, airport capacity is often strained to the limit: New York's Kennedy Airport can handle up to 49 landings an hour, but on one weekday between 4 and 5 p.m., airlines scheduled 63 arrivals. In the wake of deregulation, airline schedules have been freed from Government control. The trouble, says FAA'S Jonathan Howe, is that "everybody wants to go at the same time."