The LAX nightmare begins

Is it just me or does the estimated flight delays due to the runway rehabbing at LAX - six minutes - seem a tad optimistic? Work began yesterday on the two-year, $333 million project that will overhaul the airport's south runway and taxiway. Airport officials say they've spent months preparing for the runway closure, but no matter how you slice it, operational capacity is being cut by a hefty 25 percent, with no reduction in flights. How is the chaos avoided? "Watch LAX," warned Meara McLaughlin, vice president of marketing at a Web site called FlightStats.com, which provides real-time info on the status of most every flight in the world. Here's what she told the New York Times:

Right now, we’ve got a network air traffic system that really is struggling...And when you have an interrupted traveler, it’s not like the airlines have a way to reaccommodate them. Not only are people running into trouble frequently, but the are faced with fewer resolution options. If you have one airport with severe delays or a ground stop, that’s a problem. With six or eight, you have catastrophic delays. Airlines today can’t quickly rejuggle everybody; travel managers can’t rejuggle, because there is no slack in the system.

Nancy Castles, spokeswoman for Los Angeles World Airports, told the Press-Telegram that "if there are significant delays then the airlines will shift their flights." That's a pretty imprecise statement - what does she mean by "significant delays"? And shift flights where? By the way, FAA and airport officials have long maintained that the current configuration is dangerous because there are too many planes near the active runways.