The new restrictions on hourly flights at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) are based on “unfounded and ill-informed bias against the small jet airliner,” according to the RJ Defense Coalition (RJDC) that charged the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with using the regional jet as a scapegoat for the airport’s systematic problems. RJDC is not the only one angry over the proposal. The Air Transport Association called the rule “governmental micromanagement and interference ... not seen since the airline industry was deregulated in 1978.” The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) also objects to what it sees as the FAA’s interference in and has proposed its own set of reforms which would include forcing airlines to use their gates at 80% capacity for the year. Effective New Years Day, the FAA imposed temporary measures to control congestion , a move that targets regional jets, in limiting the number of hourly flights at the airport. The measures permit 75 scheduled and six unscheduled arrivals and departures per hour from 6:00 am through 9:59 pm during weekdays and reverts back to the restrictions at noon on Sunday. The agency is working on a final rule for the airport but has already imposed a final rule at O’Hare citing similar reasons. For a complete analysis see the January 8 issue of Regional Aviation News.