U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters today unveiled her recommendations to relieve congestion in the New York area next summer, including hourly caps at Newark Liberty International Airport in addition to previously announced suggestions for caps at John F. Kennedy International Airport
(BTNonline, Nov. 15).
"Even if we did everything in the list of operational improvements, we'd still have significant delays in the summer of 2008, absent doing something more than that," Peters told
Business Travel News last week
(BTN, Dec. 17).
The new measure will cap flights at JFK to 82 or 83 per hour, taking effect March 15. If airlines shift flights to times when JFK currently has unused capacity, it allows for 50 more flights per day than last summer, Peters said. Peters also directed the Federal Aviation Administration to begin negotiations for similar caps at Newark, preventing airlines from shifting JFK flights there.
"These capacity enhancements coupled with the regrettable, but necessary, temporary hourly caps on operations will greatly improve JetBlue's operational reliability for the benefit of our customers," JetBlue CEO Dave Barger said in a statement released this afternoon. "The true solution to alleviating congestion at JFK is enhancing capacity, and this cannot be overstated." Delta and United airlines also released statements at least partially supporting the recommendations.
Other initiatives include new take-off patterns at Newark and Philadelphia International Airport, an effort with FAA and the airline industry to make similar operational improvements next year and the appointment of an aviation czar to lead a newly created New York Integration Office, which will look at further ways to combat New York congestion and delays.
Peters also said that as operational improvements increase capacity at airports, the new slots would be leased to airlines to produce revenue for airspace and airport improvements. That directive is drawing fire from travel organizations that say this will result in increased airfares.
"Airline winners of the auctions will have to pay a very high price for the slots, and this inevitably will be passed onto passengers in the form of higher airfares," David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said in a statement. "These high slot auction costs for passengers will be added to the higher airfares from slots caps and higher fuel prices."
Business Travel Coalition president Kevin Mitchell agreed, although he also applauded Peters' moves to increase New York capacity and to appoint the aviation czar for the region. "The auction process, which would not provide material benefits, should be left for economists interested in game theory at universities and not for experimentation in the most complicated airline marketplace in the world," according to Mitchell.
Delta CEO Richard Anderson also blasted the directive. "Not only are auctions illegal, but they will do nothing to eliminate congestion," he said. "Moreover, carriers such as Delta that have substantially reduced their schedules should have their flights restored before DOT sells new capacity to the highest bidder."
As was the case during the Thanksgiving holiday period, Peters also said the U.S. military is opening airspace to commercial flights over the Atlantic seaboard from Dec. 21 to Dec. 26 and from Dec. 28 to Jan. 2. Military airspace in the western United States also will be opened from Dec. 21 to Jan. 2 for flights out of and to Southern California. "These holiday express lanes in the sky will give airlines the wiggle room they need to avoid backups, evade weather and dodge delays," Peters said in a statement.