Three New Federally-Funded Runways Open Before Thanksgiving

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters announces that new runways will open at three of the nation’s busiest airports one week before the start of the Thanksgiving holiday travel season. Peters, who is scheduled to attend all three runway openings, notes they were the latest in a series of measures the Administration was taking to improve air travel.

"These new runways are a testimony to the power of perseverance, the wisdom of foresight and the audacity of action," says Peters. "Taken together, they will cut delays, improve service and help make the flying experience better for millions of travelers."

Peters says the new runways opening today at Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare, and Seattle-Tacoma International Airports will allow for an additional 330,000 take-offs and landings each year. She adds that the runways, which were built with $643 million in federal airport improvement program funds, also will help reduce delays at the three airports and in other communities served by the facilities.

Secretary Peters says the runways are the 12th, 13th and 14th facilities opened since December of 2001. She adds that over the past eight years the federal government has invested more than $50 billion in new runway and taxiway projects, new airport facilities and new air traffic control technology.

"There’s nothing a pilot likes more than to touch down or take off on a new slab of concrete," says Acting Federal Aviation Administrator Bobby Sturgell, a former commercial pilot who also is scheduled to attend all three openings.

Peters says that the Department of Transportation also has taken 30 different actions to break the bottleneck at the three New York airports that experience record airline delays during the summer of 2007. Those measures include redesigning the region’s airspace routes, setting hourly caps at two of the three airports, lowering the cap at the third, and committing tens of millions of dollars to expand and improve taxiways.

"Our efforts have been driven by a single purpose, improving the air travel experience," says Secretary Peters. She adds that earlier this week President Bush announced the opening of military airspace for the Thanksgiving holiday, as well as new proposals to protect travelers from extended tarmac delays, and increase the amount of compensation for lost baggage and a range of consumer issues.

To read fact sheets about the new runways, click here, here, and here.