The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said on May 1 that it activated 169 more direct routes along the East Coast that will enhance safety and help prevent delays.
The announcement comes just before the summer travel season, and it is expected to provide relief to airlines and passengers who have been struggling with congestion and delays in recent years.
The shorter routes will cut down 40,000 miles and 6,000 minutes of travel time annually, the FAA said. The agency anticipates the change to prevent delays by giving air traffic controllers more capacity to direct traffic to specific routes based on the aircraft’s destination.
The move will also give controllers more flexibility to change routings based on weather. It will create fewer converging points, which will enhance safety, the agency added.
The new routes operate mainly above 18,000 feet in altitude along the East Coast, as well as offshore over the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
The FAA has sunset the legacy routes built when aircraft largely relied on ground-based radar rather than GPS.
The agency worked for over seven years with the aviation industry to develop and implement more direct high-altitude routings.
“These significant improvements to our national airspace system are just in time for summer and will help travelers get to their destinations more efficiently," said Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s air traffic organization.
“The new routes will reduce complexity and redistribute volume across all available airspace. I’m proud of the FAA and industry’s strong collaboration on this project to get it done.”
The new paths are mostly above 18,000 feet when aircraft are cruising and aim to reduce crowding on popular routes. Some of the new routes are over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
Authorities hope the redesigned traffic flows will help alleviate some of the delays and cancellations airlines have experienced due to air traffic controller shortages.
The FAA’s collaboration with the airline industry in developing and implementing the new routes is part of a broader effort to improve the efficiency and safety of air travel.
Last month, the FAA said it might delay some space launches to minimize disruption to commercial air travel and provide “equitable” access to airspace near launch sites.
Space launches have often snarled air schedules, especially in congested Florida airspace. Officials are worried about a repeat of last summer’s air travel woes—when more than 50,000 flights were canceled in the United States and hundreds of thousands of others delayed—in the face of rising demand and airline and flight control staffing shortages.
Last year, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said airlines should ease congestion at Florida airports by equipping their planes so they can fly over water along routes that have been underutilized.
The FAA in March agreed to requests by Delta Air Lines and United Airlines to temporarily return up to 10 percent of slots and flight timings this summer at congested New York area airports and Washington National, citing air traffic controller shortages for flights.
The FAA said the decision will give airlines “the ability to reduce operations during the peak summer travel period, which are likely to be exacerbated by the effects of Air Traffic Controller staffing shortfalls.”
The agency said staffing at the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control remains below targets. Last summer, there were 41,498 flights from New York airports where air traffic control staffing was a contributing factor in delays.
