Last month, oil. This month, iron ore.

Last month, V1 wrote about the strange twist of occurrences which led Nigerian officials to express their disappointment at having been placed on a security watch list by the TSA, and their allusion toward selling Nigerian oil to America’s ideological competitors in response.

Today, there comes another example of constrained global resources – this time in the realm of raw materials used in manufacturing steel. The WSJ has reported:

“Over the last few months, demand for minerals and metals has risen because of the continued strength in China’s economy and slow recoveries in the U.S. and Europe… Spot prices for iron ore and coking coal are expected to rise between 30% and 40% in 2010.”

The point is not that iron ore and coking coal are running out. Rather, world demand is currently out-pacing the processing capacity of the world’s largest mining enterprises; and prices are rising, as they should.  

So, what in the world does the price of iron ore have to do with air transportation in the U.S.?

V1 re-enters the blogosphere. Nigerian oil is just the beginning.

After taking time away for several  months, the V1 Blog has been presented with no shortage of fodder with which to illustrate the inadequacy of federally managed national airspace. From an ATC system outage, to passengers’ rights, to the DOT’s pre-occupation with NextGen as the sole solution to air traffic congestion – the challenge for this blogger is not to find recent events worth commenting on. Rather, the challenge is to choose among the vast number of opportunities for affecting change which are presented by the policies of the U.S. DOT and the FAA.

Today, V1 is presented with a perfect opportunity for re-entering the blogosphere with an event which illustrates the core purpose of The V1 Concept of Air Transportation Management; making the U.S. an economically efficient competitor for increasingly constrained global resources in the 21^st century.

V1 Files for U.S. Patent.

Today, Velocity 1 LLC filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office for a non-provisional U.S. utility patent. The requested patent is intended to protect the system of exchange, for commoditized 4-dimensional air navigation trajectories, which is described in The V1 Concept of Air Transportation Management. The review process by the U.S. Patent Office is expected to take several years.

Velocity 1 LLC wishes to express its sincere gratitude to the many individuals who have provided their support in guiding V1 toward this juncture of this ongoing endeavor. Special acknowledgment is given to:

Qmax Technologies.

Russel Rosa

Blake Edmonds

Villanova University colleagues.

Stephen Bates

Doug Dickel

Nathan Egan

Gigi Fergus

Matt Gorman

Jose Palomino

The professors of the Villanova University Executive MBA Program.

Rochester Institute of Technology colleagues.

Michael Schiavone

Dale Sprague

The late Dr. Russel Ackoff.

And especially, Laura Davies, John and Esther Davies, and the entire Davies family, for their unending support.

V1 Posts Comments to 9/24 McCartney Article on Tarmac Delays.

 

Sometimes it’s difficult not to weigh-in on aviation issues, even when taking time away.

 

This week, intrepid WSJ aviation reporter, Scott McCartney, reported on methods commercial air carriers can use to mitigate passenger angst over tarmac delays. V1 posted several replys to reader responses in the on-line comments accompanying the article. Readers of this blog are invited to review and comment also.

Illustration: Jason Schneider, WSJ.

V1 is on sabbatical until December 1.

Until the end of November, I will be focused on completing my pending qualification for Captain with the world’s largest air carrier. I’ll be looking forward to picking up my blogger’s pen again in early December. I’m very sure there will be no shortage of topics to discuss regarding the design of economically efficient air travel for the 21st century.

Safe flying all.

The cost that no one talks about.

Today, Wall Street Journal reporters Andy Pasztor and Mike Esterl revealed that Southwest Airlines is (once again) under investigation by the FAA for maintenance practice abnormalities. The inference which seems to be made apparent by the report is that Southwest has been using an inexpensive replacement part on the wing flaps of its 737 aircraft which was never approved for such use. The report does not point to any evidence of knowing culpability on Southwest’s part.

It is not the mission of V1 to routinely weigh-in on aviation safety-related matters. This blog is about re-creating aviation infrastructure as a free-market utility. However, the latest Southwest incident provides a base for how the cost pressures of modern air carrier operations result in undesirable consequences. Indeed, it seems to be made clear again and again that ‘cheap’ airfares are economically unsustainable in the long run, and that the costs of providing such fares are merely subsidized in many and various ways. This is addressed in the first part of the entry below. Further along, this post addresses the core point - that there remains one cost, borne by all air carriers, which remains completely outside the bounds of the type of prejudicial paring which has affected all other commercial carrier costs; the federal tax burden for supporting federally monopolized aviation infrastructure and it’s economically ineffective ROI.

Caution! Failed leadership, congress at work.

In a monumental example of hypocrisy, our congressional leaders managed to step into a self-made dung heap of controversy today when the Wall Street Journal reported on congressional plans to purchase $550 million worth of replacement business jets for its VIP fleet operated by the Department of Defense.

 

Of course this issue clearly demonstrates a lawmaking body with too little regard for how taxpayer funds are used. And that’s just for starters. An additional issue, and the one that rises most prominently to the surface of popular awareness, is the sublime timing of appropriating over a half a billion bucks to purchase shiny new G5’s and executive 737’s a mere six months after congressional leaders made political hay at the expense of several Detroit auto execs for using such transportation.

 

Still, V1 suggests that congress is being hypocritical here in more ways than how this issue relates to taxpayer funds or the Detroit auto execs. It is the U.S. congress which ensures the continued mediocrity of our national air transportation system by continuing to saddle the U.S. with a federally supplied and operated air traffic control system. Then, in a twist of self-made irony, it is these same folks who insist that commercial air transportation can’t accommodate their congressional travel needs. (See Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar’s work as Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.)

 

Congress needs only to look in the mirror to see the cause of this perpetually self-generating waste of economic potential. There are sound economic reasons why America does not indulge in a federally provided telephone system, electrical power system, RF spectrum, or internet system. Until air traffic control is recognized as an equally critical free-market utility for generating economic prosperity within the U.S. economy, our national air travel system will not reach its potential as a critical enabler of GDP expansion.

 

Copyright © 2009 by Scott R. Davies. All Rights Reserved.

Dear Mr. Secretary …

… It is past time for another bold national committment. An ‘Apollo 21′ project for domestic transportation infrastructure development will provide an efficient economic base for securing the growth of the U.S. economy into the 21st century.

 

“That goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.”  – JFK

NOTE – On this 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing, one of the greatest acheivements demonstrating the tremendous power of free world ingenuity and productivity, V1 is re-posting its open letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. This letter was originally sent to Mr. LaHood on February 9, when the U.S. Congress was cobbling together the foundations of the stimulus spending bill. The letter was intended to draw attention to the tremendous opportunity which exists for stimulus money to be directed into growth-oriented 21st century transportation projects, instead of toward one-time maintenance of 20th century infrastructure. The re-creation of aviation infrastructure as a collection of ubiquitous utilities and tradable commodities is a key component of the proposal.

Mr. Secretary,

V1 comments on JFK runway closure next spring.

Followers of V1 Tweets, and a large portion of air travelers in general, are well aware of the chronic travel delays which originate at JFK International Airport. This week it was announced by USA Today, and other media outlets, that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will be re-constructing a ‘main runway’ at JFK between March 1 and June 30, 2010. (The author is unfamiliar with any runway at JFK which isn’t a ’main runway’.) In light of this, it’s quite fair to assert that travelers can anticipate many challenges to JFK operations. For a peek at how this may affect the number of arrivals and departures per hour, readers are invited to visit the FAA’s ATC System Command Center website, which illustrates standard departure and arrival rates, depending on prevailing weather and wind conditions.

V1 posted the following comments in the USA Today forum linked to the announcement:

It’s important to note this passage:

“William DeCota, who is the director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, says airlines have been asked to revise their schedules. The Port Authority operates the airport, which ranks near the top nationwide in flight delays.”

This is the same Mr. DeCota who was quite vocal in his opposition eleven months ago to the Bush administration’s attempts to reduce New York aviation delays by capping infrastructure consumption at sustainable levels and proceeding with free market mechanisms. Now, Mr. DeCota is calling on the airlines to voluntarily reduce their consumption of New York aviation infrastructure capacity. This is laughable. Best of luck to all air travelers who will be transiting JFK next spring.

WSJ – ‘Does Obama Want to Own the Airlines?’

Yesterday, in Does Obama Want to Own the Airlines? WSJ columnist Holman Jenkins discussed the recent antitrust efforts by the Obama administration to disrupt the use of cost reducing alliances by the airlines. V1 responded to Mr. Jenkins’ column with the following post in the WSJ forum.

Mr. Jenkins demonstrates the simple hypocrisy of the Obama administration. On the one hand, the administration is prepared to charge into the free market melee of the air transportation industry barking hindering cries of ‘Antitrust!’. On the other hand, the administration has abandoned the fight, initiated by the previous administration, for allowing market-based allocation of the federal monopoly in aviation infrastructure. In short, the Obama administration wants ultimate competition in the seat and freight capacity sector, but ultimate centralized control in the aviation infrastructure sector (ATC).

If the administration desires to truly serve the people by ensuring an air transportation market which can produce low cost air fares, it might ponder the inescapable notion that the federal government has never been the low-cost provider of anything. So why should it continue to burden the air carrier industry, and travelers, with the high cost of a federal monopoly in the supply of air traffic control? It requires no great vision to see that it is way past time to treat ATC as just another free-market resource which is consumed in the fabrication of air transportation.

Copyright © 2009 by Scott R. Davies. All Rights Reserved.