President George W. Bush announced today that his administration will be opening up military airspace to commercial flights during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, to alleviate congested holiday skies. Last year, two East Coast corridors were added during Thanksgiving; this year, airspace across the country will be added, including the Midwest, Southwest and West Coast.
Bush is also working with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to get additional airport staff during the holidays.
It’ll be interesting to see how these additions will affect holiday air travel. I’m certainly not considering getting on an airplane until January 2009. For those of you who are traveling, take note of one more FAA expansion: Three new runways are opening Thursday (Nov. 20) at Washington-Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and Seattle-Tacoma airports.
