Here’s an the deal:  American’s are flying alot, and the airport-system was not designed to handle this much air traffic.  Therefore, there needs to be a solution to “de-congest” some of the major arteries of the air-traffic system.  I see two solutions:

1. Eliminate the 40 Billion dollar a year subsidy for airlines, and use that money to build high-speed trains between major cities, and light-rail trains between those major cities and neighboring smaller cities and towns.  These trains would be substantially cheaper than the airplanes, and can easily be powered with renewable electricity.  This would leave the airspace for long-haul (cross country, trans-ocean) flights.
2. Build more infrastructure and make flying more expensive, but keep the prices low with the 40 billion dollars per year subsidy.

Seems like an easy choice for me, but of course we know that our President wants to encourage oil consumption:

To hold down ticket prices and ease airplane congestion over the New York region, the Bush administration proposed Friday to auction landing slots at two major airports, Kennedy and Newark, and to impose a limit on airline traffic at Newark.

read more: U.S. Plans Steps to Ease Congestion at Airports via: New York Times