The airlines better watch out. President Bush is turning his focus to finding a solution for airline delays. On Monday, the commander in chief announced that the government would clear military air space to allow more planes to fly and help eliminate flight delays. This should help ease the burden during this busy holiday season. President Bush also mentioned other government officials are expected announce short and long term goals for flight delays.

Major airlines are on pace this year to set a record for poor on-time performance. Overcrowded skies during the heavy travel period this past spring and summer were blamed in part on airline over-scheduling, especially at New York's John F. Kennedy airport, a major international gateway and the worst for severe delays this year.

A third of all U.S. airline traffic leaves from, is destined to, or flies through New York air space, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Newark international and LaGuardia are the region's other two major airports and both have serious delay problems of their own.

The Transportation Department has struggled to finalize details of its congestion plan for the New York region - especially JFK - after meeting stiff resistance from airlines and some members of Congress to centerpiece initiatives such as the administration-preferred plan that would make airlines pay a premium for flights during the busiest times of the day.

But regulators, according to aviation sources late on Monday, are coalescing around a plan that is to be announced on Wednesday by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and would, over the longer term, manage capacity and competition by auctioning some takeoff and landing rights.

In the shorter term, the sources said, the government is expected to impose hourly flight caps at JFK for the summer of 2008.