Inside Report (7)

Striking air traffic controllers may be handing airlines an unexpected "gift" -- lower fuel bills. with flight schedules reduced by 25 percent, the US is swimming in jet fuel. Before the strike, airlines guzzled 4 million gallons of fuel a day. As of Aug. 7 -- the fifth day of the strike -- 1.5 billionm gallons of fuel were sitting in refineries or gushing through pipelines -- not counting fuel already stored in airline or jobber storage tanks.

According to the US Department of Energy, daily consumption is off by 14 percent. The result: brimming tanks and, more than likely, falling fuel prices.m