Flight delays tied to old computers

WASHINGTON - An antiquated flight-plan computer system overdue for replacement was largely to blame for long air-travel delays on the East Coast last week, critics say.

The Federal Aviation Administration has been slow to replace the system, said David Spero, a regional vice president for Professional Airways Systems Specialists, the union that represents FAA technical workers. A lack of training on how to repair the outdated technology made the situation worse, he added.

"This system went down because it was old," Spero said. "It needs to be replaced."

The FAA has bought new computer servers for a replacement network and is developing customized software for it, FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said. Last Friday's breakdown was unusual, and it is difficult to know whether a new computer system would have prevented the problem, she added.

"We haven't experienced a lot of problems with the existing system," Spitaliere said. "It needs to be upgraded, and we've always said that. But it's not like there were major problems" before last week.

By the end of 2008, the FAA plans to replace a mainframe computer network installed in 1988 that dispatches thousands of flight plans per day to air traffic controllers. The hardware was developed by a now-defunct Dutch company, Spitaliere said.

Known as the National Aerospace Data Interchange Network, the system is an internal communications network that sends pilots' flight plans - including a flight's route and departure time - to air traffic controllers around the country.

Without automated feeds of that data, controllers have to enter them manually - a labor- and time-intensive process.

The breakdown started early Friday with the failure of a computer system in Atlanta. The agency then rerouted the system's functions to another computer in Salt Lake City, which overloaded because of a high volume of data.

Although the computer malfunctions were fixed in hours, the delays, aggravated by thunderstorms, produced major headaches for travelers.

Only 47 percent of flights operated by US Airways, the largest airline at Philadelphia International Airport, or American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, were on time Friday. The America West division of US Airways, which has not been integrated into the larger network yet, operated 73 percent of its flights on time, the best performance of any major airline.

Aviation consultant Michael Boyd said last Friday's problems were emblematic of the agency's failure to upgrade the nation's air traffic control operations.

"That system probably should have been replaced 10 years ago," said Boyd, a longtime FAA critic. "We have an air traffic control system that is years behind."