IMPROVING AIR TRAVEL

To improve air travel in the U.S., Kriedel advocates adopting European security screening protocols and pushing the FAA’s Free Flight program forward.

“Under Free Flight,” he explains, “aircraft would no longer be restricted to flying published air corridors, which comprise only approximately 5% of available airspace. Aircraft pilots would have more control over setting their routes and over making dynamic changes in the flight path, altitude, and speed of their aircraft while under instrument flight rule conditions.

The ability to fly to destinations directly, instead of along fixed routes could create significant advantages for both time and fuel savings for the operators of aircraft and major airlines – and precious time for travelers.”

Kreidel believes that one of the most significant obstacles to implementing Free Flight is Congress’s piecemeal funding of the FAA, noting that on January 24, Congress, for the twenty-third time since 2007, approved short-term funding of the FAA.

And he also thinks that the TSA could take a few pointers from across the pond.

“European traveler security procedures are less invasive, more efficient, and result in fewer breaches and transgressions. One only has to travel through Germany or Israel to notice the difference for most travelers.

The key difference, Kreidel says, is that “European security procedures appear to be tailored to meet the risk perceived by highly trained and professional security staff, not the assembly-line mentality that TSA procedures convey.”

A commercial-rated pilot, he typically prefers flying his own planes, but when he’s not in the cockpit, he likes the Boeing 777 or the upper deck of the 747.

He usually takes a MacBook Air, a small Canon point-and-shoot camera, and an iPod touch on trips, which typically range from four to nine days in length.

“I’m trying to embrace my iPad,” he admits, “but I’m finding it unnecessary with the MacBook Air”

And one certainly gets the impression from Kreidel that there is little room for the extraneous when it comes to getting the job done.

(Lead photo: K. M. Kuan)

Correction: 9 February 2012
An earlier version of this story stated that Dick Kreidel had three-million-mile status in American Airlines’ AAdvantage program.  Mr. Kreidel actually has AAdvantage Gold status, but has logged fewer than one million miles with American

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