Wealthy special interests are blocking flight delay fixes

Flight delays have become a fact of life as the nation’s outdated aviation infrastructure struggles to meet modern travel demands — a problem magnified during busy flying days like the upcoming Labor Day weekend. While Congress is working on reforms to help fix these problems, many Americans would be surprised to learn that a special interest group is blocking these efforts so it can preserve billion-dollar tax breaks for a few wealthy private jet owners.

In recent months, flight delays have been up from 2016 levels, and these problems will only be compounded on busy holidays such as Labor Day, when an all-time high of 16.1 million passengers were expected to fly — up 5 percent from 2016.