Anyone expecting an easy solution to the JFK capacity problem has not been paying attention as company after company condemned the FAA’s proposed capacity limitations at the linchpin airport which mirrors capacity in the 1960s. Now the governors of New York and New Jersey have weighed in opposing the FAA proposal. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation blasted airlines for not doing more to resolve the problem.
While airlines are over-scheduling, they say they are meeting passenger demand. And, for their troubles they get the blame. But it is the combined mismanagement by the FAA and Congress that is at the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the passengers do not know it, even as the FAA works under a continuing budgetary resolution since Congress, once again, was not able to agree on how to fund the agency’s budget.
How many years has the FAA said that delays in modernization will be made up in the out years? At least 20, if not more. And, it has always gotten a reprieve on pressures to perform given the recessions of both 1987 and the late 1990s and the year 2,000, the last time passengers and airlines howled over delays and congestion. Now, while demand is remaining strong, the economy is softening and may well slip into a recession, which would again likely derail growing pressure for FAA to speed up improvements in air traffic control technology. Regardless of whether or not the economy goes into a formal recession, it will be the passengers who pay – with congestion, delays and higher fares if the economy remains as it is or with delays in modernization if it does not. FAA’s answer? Congestion pricing and mandatory caps and reducing operations by 20 percent.
Even as DOT was scheduled to issue its congestion pricing plan on November 1, airlines vehemently oppose congestion pricing, saying it is just a tax on passengers. Meanwhile, pundits argue that if fares go up, demand goes down, thereby softening the problem. DOT argues that its pricing plan would be “revenue neutral” since it would lower airport costs during off peak. However, the FAA’s own statistics show that JFK is operating beyond peak most of the time.
This, however, is still not an answer to forcing FAA to perform any better. Airlines, and now Governors John Cornzine (NJ) and Eliot Spitzer (NY) say the FAA’s schemes would just spread the problem to Newark and other New York area airports. It must be the government’s theory that if they spread the pain the problem will go away. But, Newark already has its own problems.


“A cap on the number of flights at John F. Kennedy Airport – is, in truth, no solution at all,” said the two governors in a letter to DOT Secretary Mary Peters. “It would literally turn back the airport’s clock, reducing it to the same capacity it had in 1969. This would be a crippling blow for our region’s passengers, our aviation industry, and our economy. Capping flights would make it harder for every traveler to and from the New York Metropolitan Area to find the flights they need, which is especially troubling in a region like this one that depends so heavily on truly globalized industries like finance and tourism to drive its economy. With limits on their capacity to fly, the major US airlines for which Kennedy is a hub may be forced to move the lion’s share of their resources elsewhere and many smaller regional carriers may not be able to provide service at all.”
Instead, the governors called for real solutions including programs such as RNAV, which would allow planes to move in and out of the airport more efficiently. Alternatives preferred by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey include fast-tracking implementation of high-technology air traffic control equipment that can move planes more efficiently.
“We should invest in new technologies like NextGen, which, if properly implemented, could start reducing delays as soon as 2008,” said Corzine and Spitzer. “And we should continue to improve customer service procedures so that when delays do occur, travelers are at least assured they will have a place to sleep, food to eat, and other basic amenities. In the longer term we should focus on the major capital investments that continue to grow the overall capacity of the system, like the expansion of Stewart Airport and the building of new taxiways at all the major airports.”
They called on FAA to work with them on these goals. “Through the Port Authority, the states have shown their commitment, purchasing Stewart Airport and allocating some $4 billion of upgrades at the existing airports, including new taxiways,” they said. “Unfortunately, the administration has not shown itself an equal partner. The FAA first received our recommendations six months ago, in time to begin work before the summer travel season. Yet as of today only four of the proposed programs have been partially implemented…there is a firm consensus that increasing capacity is the only way to protect travelers and the future of our aviation system.”
JetBlue and Delta both agreed to shift schedules at Kennedy, but Delta had already done that, which was one of the few things to come out of recent meetings. Other airlines are reportedly considering the same. But failure to reach a consensus after recent meetings only means that airlines must self-police their schedules, which contributed to the mess in the first place.
FAA defends itself saying it has redesigned the airspace, already the subject of lawsuits, and is now trying to open up now-restricted military airspace over the Atlantic so that new departure routes can be developed. It also cited its new requirements for satellite-based technology, such as ADS-B, but the earliest that will impact the problem is 2010 or 2011. Full implementation of satellite-based technology is still at least a decade away.