DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with some relief for air travelers -- there we go -- tired of playing the waiting game. This morning, President Clinton is announcing a new plan to ease flight delays. As CNN national correspondent Gene Randall now reports, the White House is trying to make sure that bad weather doesn't wash out your travel plans.</s>GENE RANDALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last summer was an air travel nightmare: At times, tens of thousands of passengers a day were delayed. Many spent hours waiting to take off. About 70 percent of the time, the problem was bad weather. So starting Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration will put into effect a new program it developed with the airlines, pilots, air traffic controllers, the military and others to help deal with Mother Nature.</s>JANE GARVEY, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We think the kind of procedures we're putting in place, the kind of cooperation and communication that we're having with the airlines should make it a much better summer than last year.</s>RANDALL: Under the plan, the FAA and the airlines will use the same weather-monitoring systems with more frequent weather forecasts to determine how best to deal with storms. A national database will make it easier to reroute planes around bad weather. And it will expand the use of military airspace off the East Coast to allow alternate north-south routings during such periods. Bottom line, says the FAA, there will always be weather-related delays, but they should not mean a repeat of last summer.</s>GARVEY: And certainly there are times when it is just much safer to have a delay, much safer not to take off. But our challenge, and what we are responding to, and what we are doing with this plan, is to try to minimize those delays wherever we can.</s>RANDALL: Part of the new plan, a Web site air travelers can use to check on airport conditions around the country. The background for all of this, the fact that the 10 largest air carriers in this country last year had an on-time arrival rate of 76 percent. Air flight delays last year were 22 percent higher than they were in 1998. Gene Randall, CNN, the White House.
President Clinton to Announce Plan to Ease Flight Delays