Simple answer my friends. LGA/DCA traffic is normally routed to the SW of LGA eventually over flying the MXE VORTAC then V378 over BAL and radar vectors into DCA.
The track posted appears to be a traffic management route offload to accomodate other traffic from the north (BOS?, YUL?, BUF?, SYR?, EWR?, TEB? pick a couple).
The flight in question departed LGA and appeared to proceed via the JFK/DCA preferred route of V1.LEEHA.V229…V308.OTT…DCA.
DAL1948 is the LGA/DCA shuttle. If there is no demand, chances are the flight will not go. If there is excess demand an axtra section would have been added the to acommodate PAX left at the gate (at least in the old shuttle days gone by it worked that way.)
I will leave the hieroglyphrics for you to figure out. It’s a good excersise in ATC procedures
DCA is always on a single runway operation for jets. I won’t get into the specifics of runway assignment because the tower can change the landing runway under certain specific conditions.
The DCA noise abatement procedures are some of the most strict in the country.
If ZNY/ZDC started to offload LGA traffic to another route the extra traffic on the new arrival fix would conflict with other BWI/DCA/PHL arrivals and departures.
Unfortunately the offloaded route will many times experience addtional holding for arrival spacing and to deconflict with the normal arrival/ departure demand.
NY aircraft do not own the airspace system. They must share the airspace assets with other aircraft. The last time I checked the Baltimore/ Washington airports (IAD/DCA/BWI/ADW) generated as much and often more traffic than NY with the similar tight airspace and noise abatement restrictions.
Put PHL in the mix underneath it all and you have 7 major airports within a 200 mile corridor competing for routes into and out of the megaplex.
All said and done you don’t really want to know any more. It’s like going into a sauage plant.
American Eagle, the regional subsidiary of American Airlines, has trimmed flights from its winter schedule in part because it doesn’t have enough pilots. “It’s one of several reasons, but that does play into it,” Eagle spokeswoman Andrea Huguely told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The pilots are crucial, and without them, the planes don’t fly.” Eagle is one of several airlines that has cut minimum experience requirements by two-thirds to 500 hours to attract more recruits. According to the newspaper, Trans States Airlines, which operates a regional service for American under the name American Connection, briefly lowered its experience requirement to 250 hours during the summer. Although no one seems to deny the value of experience, industry spokesmen contacted by the newspaper seemed to agree that safety is not being seriously compromised.
“Anyone who raises safety as an issue has some other agenda,” said Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association. “The airlines are spending a boatload of money on training and recruiting.” Huguely agreed, saying Eagle picks its pilots carefully. “You can’t just walk in from the street and say you want to be a pilot.” But John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, says the rush to get new pilots "raises obvious safety concerns. “New pilots today are going straight into the [co-pilot’s] seat, and moving into the [captain’s] seat in a hurry,” he said. “And they’re doing it in airplanes that are great machines but can be unforgiving.”
Although it’s not mentioned in the article, the word here in Indy is that Indianapolis-based Republic Airways (a large, relatively unknown company which supplies commuter flights for AAL, DAL, UAL, COA, USA, and FFT) is also suffering a shortage of pilots. Commuter jet flights from IND to ORD have been cancelled a number of times recently just on AAL due to crew shortage.
No comment, but interesting based on earlier discussions.
I must have read it wrong. If in fact USAir was enroute from DCA to LGA then we a looking at the standard route. The hold is normal up that way, been in it many times.
Off shore routes would not have come into play with this or any other NYC airrival traffic. When using random routes which is what I would consider those to be beacause they are non-standard, pretty much require that arrivals be on the standard arrival routes about 200 miles from their destination.
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