Flights in the United States: FAA activates new routes to reduce delays and cancellations

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) activated 169 new routes along the East Coast in an effort to optimise flights paths and reduce air congestion. Ultimately, the measure will reduce the likelihood of widespread delays and cancellations.

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The plan was unveiled last Monday, weeks before the start of the peak summer season, traditionally one of the busiest periods of the year for air traffic.

See also: FAA launches plan to avoid congestion at New York and Washington D.C. airports over the summer

More direct air routes for flights in the eastern United States

According to the government agency in charge of regulating civil aviation in the country, the activation of more direct routes will save time for passengers and fuel for airlines. It will also improve safety by reducing converging points.

«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, COO of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organisation.

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Arel also highlighted the joint work between the agency and industry stakeholders that has taken place over the past seven years to advance the project. «The new routes will reduce complexity and redistribute volume across all available airspace», he said.

The new routes are available primarily above 18.000 feet along the East Coast, as well as over the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. They replace earlier air routes, drawn at a time when aircraft largely relied on ground-based radars, limiting the directness of routes.

They will cut some 40.000 miles of travel and 6.000 minutes of flight time per year. As a result, the ability to reroute air traffic to specific routes according to each aircraft’s flight plan will increase, and controllers’ alternatives to operational contingencies will grow.

Avoidance of widespread disruption, one of the main objectives

One of the main objectives of the measure is to avoid a repeat of last year’s summer season disruptions caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers and airlines staff.

Some 1.7 million flights operated by national airlines were delayed in 2022, accounting for 20% of total services. This represented an increase from the 1.5 million delayed flights recorded in 2019, before the start of the pandemic.