Port Authority To Improve Passenger Flow

The board of commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and Newark Liberty International Airport, recently approved a $5 billion budget for 2006 that includes major investments in those three facilities, focused on getting passengers into and through the airport more quickly.

Specifically, the 2006 budget funds the construction of a new terminal at JFK and renovations and improvements at Terminal B at Newark Liberty. There also is planning money included in the budget to look at potential future upgrades at Newark and LaGuardia.

According to Steve Coleman, a spokesperson for the Port Authority, the new Terminal 5 at JFK will be leased to JetBlue Airways, currently the airport's busiest airline. At Newark's Terminal B, which handles both domestic and international flights, "a big part of the project is improved baggage screening and other changes that should facilitate the movement of people through the terminal."

Other major budget items for 2006 include a rail link between lower Manhattan and JFK Airport.

The impact of the budget improvements on travel costs should be relatively slight. Revenue goals will be met through a combination of operational cost-cutting and some revenue enhancements. None of the cost cuts will affect security or customer service, said Kenneth Ringler Jr., the Port Authority's executive director, and the agency has begun "an aggressive advertising and sponsorship program to create new streams of revenue that will be directly reinvested in the agency's facilities."

The 2006 budget also includes increased parking fees for the airports' long-term parking lots. In addition, the Port Authority has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration for the right to increase passenger facility charges, "but that hasn't gone through yet, so that's not in the budget until such time as the FAA approves it," according to Coleman.

The Port Authority's board also approved a strategic 10-year plan that includes potential capital projects that may be in future budgets. These include renovations and upgrades to Terminal A at Newark Liberty, including expansion of the terminal and added parking, and the modernization of the Central Terminal building at LaGuardia Airport. Long-term plans for JFK include runway and taxiway improvements.

Rail service to New York's airports also is on the agenda. The long-term plan calls improved rail connections for all three New York-area airports, for the purchase of additional trains and cars for the AirTrains serving Newark and JFK, and "a one-seat ride from JFK to Midtown Manhattan." It also calls for a $520 million investment to extend PATH service from Newark's Penn Station to Newark Liberty Airport.

The 10-year plan also looks at "critical regional transportation needs," including "projects in which the Port Authority would be looking to partner with other state and local government agencies and private developers to improve facilities and infrastructure in and around the airports," Coleman says. Among these would be the rebuilding of Terminals 2, 3, and 6 at JFK, funded through matching $750 million investments from the Port Authority and other public and private partners. In other projects, the Port Authority would partner with state and local government authorities to improve roadways providing access to the region's airports.

The Port Authority recognized that the airports serving New York "are consistently ranked among the worst in delayed arrivals and departures," according to its Strategic Plan: 2006-2015, and that business travelers, in particular, bear the brunt of these delays and inefficiencies. One of the goals of its 10-year plan is to create "an airport and inter-city rail system that catapults the region into the ranks of the world's easiest, most reliable, most enjoyable places to visit—for both leisure and business travelers."

The Port Authority also is looking at a projected 40 percent increase in air passenger demand for New York area airports over the next 10 to 15 years, and while the 10-year plan does make a nod toward significant capacity expansion at the existing airports and the possible construction of a fourth regional airport, "we're limited in what we can do capacity-wise, because the existing airports are landlocked and constrained in terms of what they can do to expand," said Coleman. "Most of our projects are going to go toward improving efficiency in what we have that already exists, given our land constraints and our financial constraints, so if you're looking for a main theme for the entire budget, it's to invest in ways to make our existing facilities work better."