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The nation's air transportation system could not have doubled in the last five years alone were not the basic structure of our airport system an efficient and solid one. 

Now we are faced with doubling again in the next five years. I have no doubt that this doubling will be accomplished, but there will also be stresses and strains in the next five years just as there have been in the last five. 

When we talk about the airport problem from the airline point of view, we are talking about congestion. That problem quickly gets to be a public problem because it's the airline passengers who suffer from the delays caused by congestion. 

The price of delay comes high. An FAA study estimates that in 1965 air carrier aircraft were delayed about 130,000 hours. If that figure were true today, and I suspect it would be even larger, it would mean that there are more than seven million man-hours of passenger delay in one year. The cost of delays at the 23 large hub air-carrier airports in 1965 to the airlines alone was more than $28 million. It is estimated that more than $41 million in total out-of-pocket airline operating costs were occasioned by delays, both in landing and taking off, at airports with FAA towers in 1965. That includes primarily extra crew time and extra fuel. What it does not include is the ill-will engendered when literally millions of passengers are inconvenienced because of lack of gate space or long lines on the taxiways waiting for runway use or stacked upstairs waiting to land. In fact, the delay problem is becoming so commonplace that it's not

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