US aviation regulators are rerouting how jets traverse the East Coast in an attempt to shave thousands of miles off trips annually.
(Bloomberg) — US aviation regulators are rerouting how jets traverse the East Coast in an attempt to shave thousands of miles off trips annually.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday announced it has created 169 new high-altitude flight routes that minimize the zig-zag pathways that have been used for decades.
“These significant improvements to our national airspace system are just in time for summer and will help travelers get to their destinations more efficiently,” Tim Arel, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization, said in a statement.
The FAA estimates airliners and other jets will shave 40,000 miles, or 6,000 minutes of travel time, each year with the new routes. It will also save on fuel and other costs. The current routing is a holdover from when planes navigated by waypoints — before the advent of GPS and advanced computing systems that allow for the more direct flights.
The FAA said it worked with the airline industry for more than seven years to come up with what it calls “high-altitude highways in the sky.”
The new routes come as the FAA prepares for potential flight delays this summer with traffic expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels. The agency has asked airlines to cut as many as 10% of flights into New York and Washington area airports because of a shortage of air-traffic controllers.
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