FAA chief says agency won’t be ’scapegoat’ for airlines when flights are delayed

FAA chief: Agency won’t be airlines’ ’scapegoat’

DALLAS — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration says his agency isn’t willing to be the scapegoat when airline flights are delayed.

Randy Babbitt said Tuesday that delays are mostly caused by airlines cramming too many flights into the peak morning and afternoon schedules. He cited frequent backups at Atlanta, Chicago’s O’Hare and San Francisco as examples of the result, and he complained that pilots tell passengers that delays are the fault of the FAA.

The FAA administrator’s comments to a group of airport executives in Dallas are the latest salvo between regulators and airlines over who’s to blame when planes sit on the runway for hours.