Airline schedules sometimes are ''out of line with reality,'' Federal Aviation Administration chief Marion Blakey said Tuesday in a speech to an industry group in Washington. ''If the carriers aren't ready to address this, don't be surprised if the government steps in.''

Blakey's comments reflect rising political pressure on airlines to improve their on-time arrivals, which fell to 72 percent this year through July. That's the lowest since the U.S. began keeping track in the current format, in 1995. The FAA negotiated flight limits to ease delays in Chicago in 2004.

Newark's Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport especially need schedule cuts, Blakey said after her speech. Along with New York's LaGuardia, they lead the U.S. in congestion this year.

''You've got schedules that simply can't physically be operated except under the most optimal of circumstances,'' Blakey said of Newark and JFK. ''We don't have optimal days that often.''

Blakey, whose five-year term as FAA administrator expires Thursday, said that ''drawing down the schedule at Chicago was not my happiest hour, but it could come to that on the East Coast.''

American Airlines and United Airlines must curb flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport until November 2008 to reduce delays, under the regulation they and other carriers negotiated with the FAA.

Delays fell 20 percent in Chicago after the order took effect, the FAA said.

Anthony Black, a spokesman for Delta Air Lines, said the carrier's schedule was developed to meet customer demand. "So it will take the collective effort of the FAA, air traffic control system and the participating airlines to remedy the issues."

Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant based in Evergreen, Colo., criticized Blakey and the FAA for not doing more to upgrade air traffic control systems, which he said are 10 years out of date.

In her remarks, Blakey touted a recent $1.8 billion contract award to ITT Corp. to build the first portion of a new satellite-based air traffic control system. But that upgrade is already almost seven years behind schedule, Boyd contends.

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* PAUL BEEBE contributed to this story.