Airline Industry Group Predicts Congestion Spread to Europe
MONTREAL — Airport chaos will worsen by the end of the century as the number of people trying to crowd aboard planes increases, the International Air Transport Assn. said.
The association, made up of 163 airlines in 140 nations, said it expects air traffic to climb to about 2 billion passengers in 2000, from about 950 million last year.
Most of the world’s busiest airports can handle 30% to 40% more traffic by changes in scheduling and other relatively inexpensive measures.
The group called on cities to lift curfews on late night flights, saying noise levels of modern jets are significantly lower than the turbo-prop planes most noise regulations were aimed at in the 1960s.
Osaka and Munich are the only cities building new airports, and no major airports have been built in the United States since 1974.
Massive congestion that has plagued American airports in the wake of deregulation will spread to Europe when it loosens airline regulations in the 1990s.
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