An additional solution would be properly designed and built regional airports.
As an example, YMLS would have to be the most short-sighted disaster in recent times.
Space for two aircraft on the ramp and a taxiway design that guarantees gridlock if a third aircraft must land with the ramp occupied! WTF built this mess? How hard would it be to expand the ramp to accommodate, say, two more aircraft and move the taxiway to the other end of the ramp? It would take a good contractor about two weeks and maybe 400 grand to do that. A few hours' gas production at most? A month's worth of aircraft holding costs?
At other regional airports the security arrangements are pathetic. One scanner for a jam-packed terminal almost guarantees delays.
If operators united to pass on holding and delay costs to their big clients, maybe this would force change. But getting competitors to unite on anything seems unlikely, so the race to more bankruptcies will continue.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 30th Mar 2014 at 00:18.