The route from the United States to St. Andrews, Scotland’s ancient home of the game of golf, is a long but  simple path east across the Atlantic and a dogleg north at London. A few planes, a train, and you’re lined up for a vigorous round on one of the dozens of courses that draw thousands of golfers each year to Scotland.

Sounds easy. But not in 2007, the year that airplanes leave airport gates but never take off, that flights are canceled because of problems with "air traffic control" and passengers’ itineraries often are more wish lists than probabilities. So far this year, one in four U.S. flights has not arrived at its destination on time.

As President Bush acknowledged last week, air travel in the United States is not working. He could have called me. On my flights last week toward St. Andrews, twice I boarded airplanes in Cleveland, Ohio, only to return to the terminal after the pilot announced that we couldn’t take off. He said he did not have clearance to land at JFK Airport in New York.

At least, American Airlines didn’t leave us on the tarmac, where 159 flights spent at least three hours waiting to take off from U.S. airports in August. Instead, I lolled away seven hours in the airport terminal, almost enough time to drive to New York, while my scheduled flight left JFK and headed across the Atlantic without me. Eventually, Delta Airlines found a window of opportunity, and I landed at JFK just 40 minutes before the last flight of the night to London.

Just when you believe that things are not possible but that you may as well give them a try, doors may open.

When I located my luggage from the Delta flight at Terminal 2, the time was 9:55 p.m. British Airways leaves from Terminal 7 at 10:30 p.m., and I would need to board an airport train to switch terminals.

Outside Terminal 2 I found train signs and followed them across a road, along a concrete path, into a building, up an elevator and onto a train that made two stops before we got to a nearly empty Terminal 7 at 10:10.

There were no passengers in sight. Behind the counter was one agent. He clicked some computer keys, saw the re-booking for me that my wife had accomplished with helpful British Airways agents by phone from Cleveland, and said into his phone, "I’ve got one more. Open it back up and let him on." The agent told me not to hurry, because this plane was going to leave at least 20 minutes late.

And of course, once we boarded we waited nearly an hour before we could take off for London. "There are at least 25 planes ahead of us," said the pilot.

With too many airplanes headed for the same places, airport tarmacs are full of tales of woe from missed flights, altered vacations and lost luggage. In St. Andrews, Scotland, at the impressive Fairmont golf resort, I met Carolyn Slatter, who still is awaiting July’s luggage from its trip across the Atlantic. She expresses little hope she will ever see her clothes again.

In my case, I arrived in St. Andrews with my luggage, only three hours later than  planned. In 2007, that is a travel success story.

David Molyneaux is editor of TravelMavens.net