Don't Cut Flights in New York

The Air Travelers Association, the airline passenger/consumer representative on the New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) to reduce aviation congestion and delay in the New York metropolitan area, opposes any move by the Bush administration to cut flights at New York’s Kennedy International. “Many laws are made and repealed in Washington, but it is the ‘law of supply and demand’ that cannot be repealed by any administration. By limiting the supply of flights at JFK/Newark, with the demand remaining the same, fares in the entire New York/Newark metropolitan area will shoot up. That’s not the result that passengers wanted in exchange for lowered delay flights,” said ATA President David Stempler. “Caps on flights at JFK are just a band-aid on a festering disease. Delays are just one symptom of the disease, but near collisions on the air and on the ground are another. The real, long-term solutions to these safety and efficiency problems is to put into service a new, safety-based, GPS, next generation air traffic control system as soon as possible. Airline safety, savings, and service depend on it,” he added. ATA called for an aviation summit to find a solution to the current funding stalemate that would start the implementation of NextGen immediately.