The issue Jetliner is this. The airlines deliberately schedule flights together in airports which don't really have the capacity to handle the flights. They know this, but for competitive reasons they continue to do it. It is particularly acute at JFK, LaGuardia, Atlanta and Chicago but is endemic throughout the system.
The airlines will simply have to make more realistic scheduling so that the slightest hiccup doesn't result in chaos. This is the reason why this problem is so endemic in the US, and less prevalent elsewhere. Slots in other countries are managed and controlled (indeed, they are bought and sold in some countries). It is false to put the blame for this entirely on the infrastructure. The airlines themselves create their own schedules which are simply not realistic. They fight tooth and nail attempts by the FAA to control this. The FAA is now however taking a harder line on this and has recently implemented changes in New York area to manage this, in the face of bitter opposition by the airlines.
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