Very Light Jet Report :: Confusing Week for NY Decongestant Proposals

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Amid press reports indicating the Department of Transportation will make auctions part of its recommendations when Secretary Mary Peters reports to President Bush this week, the department published the 188-page report from Aviation Rulemaking Committee tasked with coming up with solutions. The report came on the heels of nearly 100 recommendations made by a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey task force recently. Related Story
Perhaps one of ARC’s greatest findings was something the industry already knew – general aviation constitutes a tiny percentage of movements at New York Airports and contributes little or nothing to congestion. While there was disagreement over the impact general aviation had on congestion, FAA data shows that nonscheduled, noncommercial operations are a very small percentage of the operations at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark. In previous allocations at overscheduled or capacity constrained airports (O’Hare, JFK, LaGuardia, and Washington National), a small number of slots has always been available to general aviation. While some in the Working Group addressing such concerns – Working Group 2 – felts nonscheduled, noncommercial operators must retain access to all airports, others called such allocations an inefficient use of very scarce airspace.
The ARC material indicated a New York area Czar would be useful, although it said little on up-gauging, which is aimed at small regional jets instead of the mainline narrow bodies that have constituted most of the growth at Kennedy this year. Related Story
“Service to small communities is often on regional jets,” it said, “A pricing scenario may make operations on such aircraft impractical (because the cost would only be spread among a few passengers). Therefore, service to these small cities may be at jeopardy. Under the High Density Rule Congress made carve-outs for service to small communities. Any solution for the New York area will likely need to consider whether provisions should be made for preserving service to small communities.” It concluded by saying any policy-based exceptions to congestion pricing/auctions such as for small community air service and new entrants would undermine the benefits of market-based solutions.
Despite the rhetoric, service from small communities has already largely been spun out of the New York sphere in favor of longer haul flights to cities once exclusively served by mainline aircraft. This has provided a boost to general aviation which is often the only connection short of driving.
Amongst the other policy issues to be resolved is competition from new entrants, international operations, general aviation, use of revenues, the duration of slots and the type of auction to be used. It also said any such solutions must recognize the investment made by airlines and airports, although it is unclear whether the group condemned auctioning future capacity increases versus current capacity. Such market mechanisms could impact aircraft gauge and frequency along with aviation investments.
Besides the Regional Airline Association, ARC members included officials from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, airlines, consumer groups, the FAA and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The committee developed workings groups to cover operational/infrastructure improvement, a NY Czar, general aviation and voluntary reductions which was part of Working Group 1’s mandate, along with examinations of the recent Port Authority proposal. Working Group 2 covered congestion pricing, auctions and aircraft gauge, while Group 3 deliberated gate utilization and perimeter rule. Working Group 4 focused on priority aviation traffic preferences, while Group 5 examined the scheduling guidelines published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and other options.
One of the more interesting observations concerning market-based solutions, came from Working Group 2 which noted that organizations that control airport and airspace access are both monopolies and, therefore, are themselves not market-based. For this reason, pricing of airport or airspace access as proposed would operate as a government tax, rather than a market price between two private entities. In addition, the group noted there were no viable reliever airports in the region for those who cannot afford to serve JFK under a pricing option or those who do not need to connect, which is a vastly limited number of flights.
The auction news, which also includes the possibility that caps would be imposed on all three New York area airports, met with universal condemnation from aviation groups, including the Air Carriers Association, which represents low-cost carriers who, it said, would be squeezed out of Kennedy should caps or auctions become a reality. The ultimate victim would be passengers who will have fewer choices and higher fares as airlines pass along the higher costs of slots to them.
Auctions, which would take a rulemaking to become effective, became the preferred option after plans to impose congestion pricing – also universally condemned – was overruled by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, which operates the airports.
News of the proposed limitations came on the heels of 100 recommendations made by a coalition created by the Port Authority that would ease congestions at the three troubled New York airports. The Port Authority embraced the IATA's World Scheduling Guidelines called for by Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani, during a speech before Washington’s Aero Club. He pointed to the Port Authority list of 75 operational and infrastructure improvements that should be launched to help alleviate congestion.
The auction idea faces tough hurdles since airlines count their slots as property and seizing them would be a constitutional violation, which calls for just compensation in such seizures. Airlines have invested millions of dollars in their slot-related service. In addition to rulemaking, court battles are highly likely since auctions would be unique to the New York airports.
IATA, which representing 60 member carriers operating at Kennedy, also opposed congestion pricing. Bisignani called making military airspace availability during holidays a “political placebo for a serious long-term illness” in the face of the only solution to congestion, accelerating capacity improvements through NextGen. "Instead of addressing the problem, the DOT wants to change the way people travel by making it more expensive at peak times," Bisignani said, who called Kennedy congestion a global concern and said congestion/peak pricing “a bandaid” which has never worked anywhere in the world. He blamed Congress for not affording FAA the appropriate resources to deal with air traffic management problems in the area.

Proposed Czar
“This New York Czar proposal is based on recent successes within the Air Traffic Organization wherein a single individual/entity was granted sufficient authority to facilitate initiatives and implement much needed enhancements encountering little, if any, delay,” said Group 1. “The current structure within the ATO (FAA’s Air Traffic Organization) does not provide the level of speed and agility required to implement the initiatives identified in the New York ARC in a timely manner. The ATO’s current structure seems to have greatly increased coordination across the different lines of business. There is concern that it has been inefficient and at times the structure seems to have been a direct impediment to making significant progress, specifically, the amount of time involved in reviewing, adjusting, and implementing most of the suggested initiatives.”
To be successful, this individual should receive the full backing and support from each ATO vice president as well as their entire directorate level to ensure positive results in a much more expeditious manner, said ARC, which added it is imperative that this position be given the necessary authority to cross all the lines of business to manage critical processes and to expedite implementation. It recommended having the czar report directly to ATO’s Chief Operating Officer and be readily accountable to the ATO’s Executive Council (EC) on all matters that deal with these strategic initiatives from inception through implementation and follow up.
Working Group 1 would also like to see a process whereby a committee comprised of FAA/DOT employees and representatives from industry meet regularly to discuss necessary airspace enhancements. This group could assist in determining what changes may be necessary to enhance the implementation of initiatives aimed at relieving the problems encountered in the Northeast/New York area. Any recommendations or findings that come from this committee should be reported to the EC within 90 days.
Group 1 said the 77 recommendations made by the Port Authority fell into five categories – efficient airport surface movement; departure efficiency; arrival efficiency; regional airspace efficiency; and technology – and concluded 18 are already underway with completion expected by summer. The most promising of the 77 involved excessive spacing on final approach, runway/taxiway improvements, a second J80 – an east-west corridor leading to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC – the most heavily traveled skyway in the system and the source of many delays. Potential savings of $2.8 million/annual based on minutes of delay saved, increase capacity and reduces delays at numerous airports.
It also discussed surface management systems as well as multiple runway entry points and high-speed taxiways. Group 1 said creating a surface management system would eliminate the lack of coordination between surface and air controllers, affording a much more efficient airfield operation.

NY Airports Offer Decongestant Ahead of Federal Mandates
LaGuardia, JFK and Newark, joined by the PANY&NJ and airline executives actually made 100 recommendations to decongest air traffic in the New York metropolitan airspace and seemingly allow airlines to have their cake and eat it, too, since they do not do not call for up-gauging or a reduction in the number of flights. Nor do they include peak or congestion pricing or auctions. That would only be fair since the Regional Airline Association showed that increases in narrow bodies outweigh those of regional airlines which are naturally up-gauging from market demand.
Part of the solution would be airline rescheduling to avoid congestion and quicker action to get aircraft off runways sooner and more efficient routing in the heavy NY-Washington corridor. The task force also wants accelerated deployment of NextGen technology already in use at other airports. That means increased funding which is also required for lengthening and reconfiguring taxiways to offload aircraft from runways more quickly.
The recommendations resulted from a PA&NYNJ Flight Delay Task Force, which included a top FAA official, and are designed to reduce delays and congestion by next summer if 27 are become effective shortly. The task force said that adopting all 100 would pave the way for 3.5 million additional passengers at Kennedy, without increasing delays. The task force specifically wants to avoid federally mandated limits at Kennedy where restrictions were lifted earlier this year, which would naturally limit the number of passengers and revenue.
The task force hopes DOT Secretary Mary Peters will make the recommendations part of her report to President Bush. The FAA is already trying to adopt some of the provisions, making that more likely. Demand is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2025 over the 104 million passengers using the three airports.
A copy of the ARC’s report can be found at www.dot.gov/affairs/FinalARCReport.pdf and http://www.dot.gov/affairs/ARCCoverLetter.pdf

Confusing Week for NY Decongestant Proposals

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