New air routes to ease delays, wake up neighbours

Residential areas in the northeastern part of the United States may soon have a bone to pick with the Federal Aviation Administration. Their new plans to ease delays in some of the busiest airports on the eastern seaboard may see more planes flying over areas that they haven’t before.

The most delayed airports in the United States are New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, and the new plan claims it can cut delays by at least 20 minutes by allowing planes to take headings not available before, essentially opening a new air-road to keep the traffic flowing.

The plan has been in development for almost 10 years, and will begin to be implemented in the coming months, gradually including more routes with an expected completion date somewhere around 2011. FAA manager and head of the redesign Steve Kelley says, “The air traffic system today is somewhat antiquated in the Northeast. We need to do the job better.”

The FAA said that where noise for residents is an issue, they were willing to provide ‘noise relief’. What that means is anyone’s guess.