This is a key safety-enhancing initiative.

Today's announcement reaffirms our continued commitment to our passengers to improve the air travel experience.

If you already have departed the gate and you now get caught up in a two- to three-hour weather delay and you know you will go over your duty day, then you will have to turn around and go back, climb out of the cockpit, and the chances of getting a backup pilot will be very difficult. So in most cases, that flight will be canceled.

That is what we need to be looking for: Who is that individual who is a potential threat to all of the other passengers?

This is not a preemptive move on anything. This is to signal to the new administration that we believe there are ways in which the system can be improved.

Runway incursions at our nation's airports reached record levels in 2000. With safety as our highest priority, this is simply unacceptable.