By Dan Reed and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY

In an ominous sign that pre-9/11 congestion has returned, U.S. air travelers waited on the runway for take-off longer last year than any time since 2000.

Bureau of Transportation Statistics data for the January-October period show:

• The average taxi-out time — time between leaving the terminal and takeoff — rose to 16 minutes, 12 seconds. It matches the average runway wait of 2000, when travel congestion stirred national outrage.

• Some 36,061 flights, or about 9.7 per 1,000, by major carriers during the period took one hour or more to taxi out — the highest rate of hour-plus taxi times ever.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Greg Martin said several factors fueled longer taxi times last year. Among them: unusually bad weather in heavily flown sections of the USA last summer, changing airline-scheduling practices, runway construction at major airports and — ironically — a new system for easing flight delays at major hubs. Creating ``express lanes`` for big airports built backups at smaller airports.

Extra taxi time is an expensive problem for travelers and airlines alike. Based on the government`s estimate of what a passenger`s time is worth, those 36,061 flights with taxi-out times of an hour or more cost the 3.6 million passengers stuck on those planes, and their employers, at least $75 million in lost time and productivity.

According to industry averages, the difference between the average taxi-out time and taxi times of one hour cost the industry an extra $66 million in overtime pay, extra fuel, passenger compensation and lost productivity. The growth of average taxi time for all flights by less than a minute added $400 million to operating costs.

Aviation officials and analysts warned that congestion would build once the air market stabilized. ``We`ve always thought that sometime after 9/11, we would be back to the same delay levels we saw before then,`` says John Heimlich, chief economist at the Air Transport Association airlines trade group.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-01-09-taxi-time_x.htm