wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

It seems to me that over the past decade, airlines have tended to have more frequent flights using smaller aircraft that seat 50 passengers max. Having more planes means that air traffic controllers have to deal with more aircraft to space out when managing takeoffs and landings.

Around 1992, I used to fly Continental 737s from EWR to cities like Pittsburgh or Indianapolis. Nowadays, every other jet flying out of Newark seems to be tiny Embraer ERJ 145s.

the reason southwest is on time is because the airports that the fly out of like - Love Field in Dallas, not DFW and ISLIP not JFK or LGA do not have air traffic delays, so the controllers can cater to the airline, instead of delaying planes on the tarmac.

I wonder what Scott thinks will happen as the new crop of very light jets (VLJs) enter the market. These small (6-seat) personal jets will need to share the airspace with passenger jets, so there may be more delays as these private jets enter the air.

how you I minimize the chances of a departure debacle? I try not to fly. with a 3yr old and a one and a half yr old who do not understand that one must be seated with the seat belt buckled (and quiet, based on the news story of the family being thrown off the plane because the kid would not stop saying "bye-bye") during take-off and landing, we hope it will be a long time before they want to go to Disney World...