The Federal Aviation Administration has shuffled and juggled air routes along the U.S. East Coast to relieve air traffic congestion, reduce load on the air traffic control system, save fuel, reduce pollution and more. Almost like magic.
The trick the agency has used is to potentially achieve this effect is to shut down a slew of ‘airline highways’ that operated at low altitude and depended on ground-based radar for guidance. The new routes, 169 of them, are able to fly straighter paths because they rely on GPS rather than having to follow the locations of radar stations.
The FAA says that potentially the new system will save 40,000 travel miles and approximately 6,000 minutes in the air as well as reduce the need for more new hires for ground radar control. In some cases, it may allow airlines along the busy corridor to post shorter flight times.
