Commercial Airlines and Military Airspace . . .

[Xyn_Air]

. . . coming this holiday season to a crowded sky near you!

Actually, I was just reading this article.  It seems that an lengthy permission to use normally restricted military airspace is going to be provided over the Thanksgiving holiday this year.  Indeed this article was full of all sorts of juicy information (from guarantees on departure and arrival times to guarantees of food and water if you have sit on a plane while delayed for take-off), but I just want to focus on the airspace issue for the moment.

My confusion is, I thought most congestion was in relation to runways, that is, a great neighbor of departures and arrivals versus a small number of runways to conduct said departure and arrivals.  Is airspace congestion really that much of an issue?  Or, perhaps it is from an overlap between military airspace and civilian airspace specifically near airports that causes issues.  I know that Minot Int'l is surrounded by three rather large and inconveniently placed military airspaces, and that navigating your way around that area is like winding through a maze.

Anyone have more light to shed on this?

[Isak922]

Interesting.

While I believe it to be a very poor idea to let Civilian Airliners fly through restricted Military Airspace (It's restricted for a reason, you know); I do applaud that Bush can do something right.

[Xyn_Air]

Interesting.

While I believe it to be a very poor idea to let Civilian Airliners fly through restricted Military Airspace (It's restricted for a reason, you know); I do applaud that Bush can do something right.

First, you have to prove it was his idea.  ;)

But, quickly veering away from anything that may seem political (it was a joke, I swear) . . . so, really, is open airspace that crowded?

[DaveSims]

The problem still is a lack of pavement (aka runways).  With all the airspace in the world to use, only one plane at a time can use a runway.  That is what causes delays at the major airports.  An airport may only be able to handle 60 flights per hour, yet the airlines schedule 80 an hour at times.  For some reason they think it saves them money.

[Ivan]

From what i see in that article... if a flight has ground delay they can ask for permission to fly straight through the restricted zone instead of following the usual route. No big deal.