Government Inaction on Energy Hurts Airlines, Delta Chief Says

WASHINGTON — As oil climbed above $108 a barrel on Monday, Delta Air Lines chief executive Richard Anderson condemned federal officials for failing to help restrain the fuel costs that are eroding airline profits.

"We don't have an energy policy in this country, and we need one," Anderson said. "Jawboning OPEC is not an energy policy."

In his keynote address at the Federal Aviation Administration's annual industry forecast conference, Anderson refused to answer questions about the possible combination of Delta and Northwest Airlines.

But he had plenty to say about his frustrations with oil, which cost about $70 a barrel just six months ago. Now it has reached a record $108 a barrel, driving up jet fuel prices and undermining airline profitability.

"We really don't have any conservation measures in place" to help cool demand and lower prices, Anderson said. When it comes to moving towards energy independence, "we're several years behind the times."

Anderson said that if policy makers were serious about conserving fuel, they would be installing new air-traffic control equipment and systems more quickly to reduce flight delays.

"When your average taxi-out time on a good day is 15 to 20 minutes, ... that's a very significant" amount of fuel being wasted by planes idling on the runway, he said.

Many industry analysts believe that higher fuel prices would increase the pressure on carriers to merge, in order to cut costs and increase ticket-pricing power. But the possible Delta-Northwest deal, which would create the world's largest airline, has been on hold as pilot unions at the two carriers try to resolve their seniority issues.

Separately at the same FAA event, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the federal government was capping the number of flights during peak hours at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport to ease flight delays in the New York City area.

"We have an obligation to travelers to do everything in our power to prevent a repeat of the horrors they experienced last summer," she said. Rather than require cuts in airline service, the government is pushing airlines to shift departure times to less busy periods so that "they just will be more reasonably spaced."

Starting in early May, Newark will be limited to 83 flights per hour during peak periods, down from about 95 flights per hour during last summer's peak.

An identical cap starts this month at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where airlines had scheduled about 100 flights per hour last summer, and similar limits are already in place at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

The airline industry opposes caps, saying the way to end delays is to increase airport capacity and improve flight paths.

Peters also said her department would begin rolling out elements of a new air-traffic control system this summer in Florida. The latest equipment will be used in Daytona Beach and new fuel-saving descent techniques will be employed in Miami.

The Transportation Department also will try to increase airspace capacity along Florida's Gulf Coast by allowing planes to fly more closely together in ways that don't compromise safety, she said.