Jack Kingston

After a successful experiment last year, President Bush announced today that he would again open “Thanksgiving Express Lanes” and that the program would be expanded.  From a White House fact sheet:

Today, President Bush visited the Department of Transportation (DOT) and discussed measures to improve air travel, both during the upcoming holiday season and in the future, and highlighted his Administration’s transportation safety record.  Over the holidays, millions of Americans will take to the roads, railways, and skies to visit loved ones.  For too many travelers, though, it means long delays, cancellations, and lost bags.  Today the President announced new measures that bolster the Administration’s those problems. 

• This year, the military is expanding “Thanksgiving Express Lanes” to areas of the Midwest, Southwest, and West Coast, including the skies over Phoenix and Los Angeles.  As they did last Thanksgiving, the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense will make military airspace available for use by civilian airliners over the holiday season – but this year even more airspace will be open, and it will be available for a longer period of time. 
• The Administration has also launched an unprecedented effort to reduce air congestion by boosting flight capacity at some of America’s busiest airports.  DOT has completed 13 major airport improvement projects, including 11 new runways.  This week, three more runways (for a total of 14 during this Administration) will open at Seattle-Tacoma, Washington-Dulles, and Chicago-O’Hare. 
• The Administration is working with the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Security Administration to make more staff available to speed up check-in and boarding and to help passengers affected by cancellations and delays.  
• DOT has completed new regulations that provide increased protections for consumers.  Recent actions include requiring airlines to provide greater compensation for lost bags and imposing tougher penalties when airlines fail to notify travelers of hidden fees.  We expect these new rules to take effect in December, in time for Christmas and the New Year.