ABSTRACT
Despite the fact that air travel has increased faster than US airport capacity for many years, congestion-related delay does not yet appear to be pervasive problem for the nation’s aviation system. Rather, the vast majority of delays are caused by weather, not congestion, and thus, as explained below, are unlikely be ameliorated by the adoption of market based methods for allocating airport/runway access. As shown in the following exhibit based on data compiled by the FAA, volumerelated delays accounted for less than 15 per cent of all delays in each of the four years preceding September 11, 2001, and the percentage of delays related to volume has declined steadily over the past decade. In contrast, weather-related delays consistently account for over 70 per cent of all delays.1
