The Longest Delays Are In the Northeast

(MoneyWatch)  I realize that the title of this post is about as obvious as it could possibly be, but I still thought this would be an interesting one to break down, especially since everyone is freaking out about a passenger bill of rights these days. The July list of tarmac delays is out, and there were 29 flights that sat on the tarmac for 4 hours or more. Here's how they break down:

• JFK - 11 departures/0 arrivals
• LaGuardia - 2 departures/3 arrivals
• Newark - 1 departure/3 arrivals
• Philadelphia - 8 departures/0 arrivals

Missing one, right? That was the lonely flight from Atlanta to LAX on the day that Atlanta had 1.89 inches of rain and thunderstorms. By the way, 2 of the flights were from Chicago to New York airports, but I'm sure the problem was in New York. Chicago had beautiful weather that day while Newark and LaGuardia had torrential downpours. Chicago really isn't much of a problem anymore on a regular basis. It's all about New York and Philly.

So, will a passenger bill of rights solve this problem? I can't imagine it would. If we really want to solve this problem, maybe we need to start building some new runways in New York and Philly.