Airspace Scam

James Fallows honors Thanksgiving with a comprehensive debunking of the notion that the Bush administration's decision to open military airspace in the northeast corridor this weekend is some kind of boon to NYC-area air travelers. In fact, as he points out, this changes nothing -- restricted airspace was never the cause of any congestion, so opening it doesn't solve anything. The New York Times's editorial page was, however, taken in, so I guess that's mission accomplished for the White House.

Comments

A concept from chemical kinetics called the rate-limiting step is useful here. The overall rate of a process consisting of a sequence of processes will be determined by the slowest step, which in this case was not the far airspace.

Posted by bob h | November 22, 2007 10:59 AM

This wouldn't be such a problem if the news media intended to do a follow up report on whether anybody got to their destination more quickly.

But they won't. So he'll get credit, regardless.

Posted by Jinchi | November 22, 2007 11:59 AM

Whether Bush's move is effective or not, the intent seems to be for the Beloved Leader to show his personal concern for the American People by generously allowing their planes to fly through his personal airspace. It's a gesture more suited to Imperial Rome.

Posted by James Gary | November 22, 2007 5:30 PM

The Times also fooled here:
"...Relatively mild weather yesterday and President Bush’s decision to let airlines make fuller use of military airspace over the holiday also helped make things run more smoothly...."

Posted by Ken C. | November 23, 2007 4:01 PM