Nobody will admit it, but the airlines themselves are to blame. Notice that the major mess ups are at the major airports. The airlines bought into the RJs and simply put, they are clogging the skies in the big cities. Years ago, airlines would fly L1011s and DC10s into LGA with 300 plus pax onboard. How many RJs would it take to carry the pax of 3 widebodied jets (1000 pax)? Ah, but airlines say that the passenger wants direct flights to LGA from the smaller communities. True, but the airlines also gave the passenger the choice, fly on a RJ direct or go through the hub city. Each individual airline has the ability to control their flights through their respective hub cities, but when you have the likes of CAL, DAL, AA, UAL, etc all flying their RJs to these major cities instead of their hubs, it clogs up the system. How many times have you sat in line behind 10 RJs from one major airline system and wonder how many of those aircraft could be replaced with a couple of widebodies?
The airlines realized sort of the same thing back in the 70s with the fuel crisis. It was a lot easier and cheaper to run a couple of big aircraft instead of a whole network of narrow bodies.
The RJ concept was great initially. Put small aircraft into smaller communities that would or could not support mainline service on a regular basis. But when these aircraft started to replace mainline aircraft into major cities on direct routes, the ATC system couldn't and isn't able to handle it.
Take one more look at this. The legacy airlines that have had huge RJ fleets have all gone bankrupt or close to it. Those airlines that have had a mininmal or no RJ network have weathered the last 5 to 6 years fairly well. Cause and effect? Who can say?
The next time you are bored, try and find out how many seats on a daily basis your airline has flying to LGA from small communities direct, on the RJs. Then instead of flying direct, imagine they are flying their pax to your hub city (which can be controled to a certain extent by the major) and then put on a 767 to LGA. And then consider all of the legacies doing the same thing.
The airlines are themselves to blame. They have spoiled the passenger with crazy low fares and given the passenger expectations that he can fly from his small community direct to any major city.
Look, I have nothing against RJs and the people making a living from them. But utilize them in the orginal concept. Do you really believe that the FAA will be able update their system anytime soon to be able to handle the amount of aircraft in one area? And I don't care what kind of system is in place, if two out of four arrivals are shut down due to weather, you have to put 30 aircraft somewhere. Let's see 30 aircraft x 50 passenger seats equals 1500 pax. Or 1500 passenger seats divided by aircraft holding 220 equals 6 to 7 aircraft. Which scenerio would the ATC system be able to handle better?
Tell me where I'm wrong.........