It’s bad enough that air travel bears the responsibility for a tremendous level of air pollution, but according to a U.S. Congressional committee, the later the plane, the worse the problem. It’s like adding injury to the insult of a tardy flight. The title of the report is "Your flight has been delayed again."

In 2007 alone, delayed flights burned through about 740 million gallons of jet fuel beyond the actual amounts needed to get from point A to point B. Every minute a plane sits on the runway, circles or has to turn back is another minute of wasted fuel.

And when you look at the cost of that amount of fuel — $1.6 billion — you have to wonder if that isn’t enough cash to get the struggling airlines back on solid ground. Of course, that is only the cost of fuel — the Congressional report from the Joint Economic Committee lists the total cost as something closer to $41 billion in airline operating costs and passenger time. And the level of carbon emissions approaches immeasurable.

But the report also included potential solutions, chief of which is upgrading the national air traffic control system from radar to satellite. It may seem strange to suggest such a significant upgrade to the system that will only reduce carbon emissions, rather than eliminate them as some alternative fuels might, but it’s clear that action must be taken now — even if that action cannot completely solve the problem.


Photo — The Voyager's