DOT 177-08
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Contact: Bill Mosley
Tel.: (202) 366-4570

Special Santa Skylanes Mean No Delay for Santa’s Sleigh

Santa Claus will enjoy special express lanes in the skies over the United States to help him make speedy deliveries to good girls and boys on Christmas Eve, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced today.

By using the special “Santa Skylanes,” Santa will have access to the same military airspace that President Bush announced would be made available to civilian flights during the holiday period.

“We know Santa Claus must adhere to a really tight schedule to get to every house on his list,” said Secretary Peters, as she presented Santa his Christmas Eve flight certificate at Andrews Air Force Base. “Allowing him to use military airspace will ensure that crowded skies won’t mean empty stockings on Christmas morning. It just wouldn’t do to have the gridlock Grinch stealing Christmas.”

Secretary Peters said the temporary use of military airspace for civilian flights, made available by the U.S. Air Force, significantly reduced travel times during last year’s holiday period. Last year’s “Holiday Express Lanes” allowed some East Coast flights to trim 100 miles off their trip, while 4,800 flights used California military airspace to save over 99,000 miles.

This year, Holiday Express Lanes have been expanded to help Santa and commercial aircraft navigate over busy areas of the Midwest, the Southwest, and the West Coast, including the skies over Phoenix and Los Angeles. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the lanes were used by almost 2,400 flights and were especially helpful in routing around bad weather on Nov. 30, the busy Sunday after Thanksgiving.