REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION AIADA CONFERENCE

FACT 2 NEWS CONFERENCE
ATLANTA, GA

MAY 15, 2007
10 AM

As Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Ben de Costa, for that kind introduction and for showing me around this remarkable airport. I also want to thank our Federal Aviation Administrator, Marion Blakey, for being with us today.

Hartsfield-Jackson is as much a symbol of this city as Georgia Tech, Coca-Cola, and The Varsity. It plays a key role in this region’s economy and gives Atlanta’s residents and businesses the freedom to connect to cities throughout the nation and the world.

Few cities have done as much to keep pace with growing demand for air travel as Atlanta. Within the last year alone, this airport has opened a new runway, a new tower, and a major new taxiway. I am pleased the Department of Transportation is contributing more than $270 million toward those important projects.

Today, expansion continues under an aggressive $6.8 billion development program. The new international terminal, when completed, will be the latest in a list of improvements that allow this airport to handle more flights and more passengers.

Unfortunately, this airport’s success is turning into its greatest challenge. A new report I am releasing today shows, in less than two decades, even with all the upgrades, Hartsfield-Jackson likely will not be enough to handle the flood of flyers heading this way.

According to the Department’s new Future Airport Capacity Task Report, growing demand for air travel in places like Atlanta is going to strain, and ultimately, overwhelm our ability to keep pace. This will be the case even if communities nationwide are able to build every new airport runway, terminal, and tower project on the books right now.

By 2025, cities like Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, and San Diego are going to have to risk the lost revenue, lost business, and lost appeal that comes with chronic airport delays or they are going to have to consider building new airports.

In Atlanta, despite all that we have done to add capacity, air service will suffer if this region does not find new ways to handle growing demand and begin looking at building a new airport.

Atlanta has multiple highways, multiple landmarks, and multiple airlines. Now it is time for Atlanta to consider having multiple commercial airports. That is why the Department is making nearly $1 million available for this city’s leaders to look at new solutions for getting more flights in and out of Hartsfield-Jackson in the near future. This new money will also fund a review of longer-term options like converting existing general aviation and military air fields for commercial use or even building a new airport.

Make no mistake: building a handful of new airports is not enough to get us off the hook.
Our new report also shows that by 2025, fifteen metropolitan areas will not have the ability to handle demand for flights, unless they move forward with planned improvements. That means we need state and local leaders to push forward with expansion plans. And you have my pledge that the federal government will continue to support communities as they make these needed upgrades.

In the last 15 years, we have spent nearly $6 billion to help open 27 new runways at the nation’s largest airports. We have also helped convert 5 former military airfields to commercial service airports. And we have currently committed an additional $4.2 billion for three new runways, two airfield reconfigurations, one runway extension, and one major taxiway.

However, this still may not be enough because there are parts of the country where the answer is not as simple as building a new airport or expanding an existing one. In places like the San Francisco Bay area, where the three existing airports are hemmed in by urban development and the Bay itself, there is literally no room to expand.

The report concludes that several major metropolitan areas, like New York, Boston, and the Los Angeles region, will have to find better ways to use existing, smaller or underused air fields. If not, flight delays and gridlock will be all too common because of limitations at existing commercial airports.

Building new airports, expanding existing fields, and taking better advantage of smaller facilities is important. We also have to find the right mix of air, road, and rail travel, especially along the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards.

This study makes it clear that we need to develop solutions that match travelers with the best way to get to their destinations. If you want to go from New York to Boston, does the Acela train make more sense than the airline shuttle? And if you are traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco, what is the right route to take?

We have asked planners to think about these questions in new ways. And I am pleased to say the experts at the Transportation Research Board have agreed to begin new research into how we can best use our network of airports, highways, and railroads to get travelers where they need to be.

When you combine this research with the work already underway in places like Atlanta, there is little doubt that we will find a way to turn this challenge into an opportunity to keep our families free to travel and our businesses free to succeed.

We all know that staying ahead is always harder than getting ahead. Atlanta’s leaders will have to embrace new airports and new ways of thinking if they want this city to remain a national symbol of good connections and not become a destination for delays that would make rush hour on the “connector” feel like a pleasant Sunday drive. Thank you, and now I would like to ask Administrator Blakey to make a few remarks.

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