FAA launches faster East Coast routes to avoid congestion
The Federal Aviation Administration has launched nearly 170 new flight routes that are shorter and faster, aiming to cut down on congestion in the eastern U.S.
It's part of a seven-year effort from the FAA and airlines to redraw high-altitude route maps for planes, the agency said Monday.
The FAA launched the 169 new routes last week, and is abandoning older ones, which were longer and zigzagged more. Those longer routes were designed for planes relying on ground-based radar and not the GPS that modern aircraft use. The new ones will be more direct.
The new paths are mostly above 18,000 feet, when aircraft are cruising, and aim to reduce crowding on popular routes. Some of the new routes are over the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
"The change helps prevent delays by giving the agency more capacity to direct traffic to specific routes based on the aircraft's destination," the FAA said in a release. "When weather occurs, controllers will also have more flexibility. Finally, fewer converging points and more simple flows enhance safety."
The FAA estimated that the new routes would reduce about 6,000 minutes of travel time a year.
Source: CNBC
