New York Air Traffic - Two Crowded Rivals, Filling Up One Clear Sky

[hkskyline]

Two Crowded Rivals, Filling Up One Clear Sky
By MATTHEW L. WALD
31 January 2006
The New York Times

FOR years, New York air traffic controllers and their bosses at the Federal Aviation Administration had agreed that New York had the most complicated air traffic in America, because of the high traffic and because the three big airports are so close that a decision to use one runway at Kennedy International Airport precludes the use of another one at La Guardia Airport or Newark Liberty International Airport. This was used to explain why it was hard to attract enough controllers to New York, and why the radar office that handles low-altitude traffic, the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control, in Westbury, N.Y., had such high overtime bills.

But last summer, the F.A.A. blamed controller abuses and its own lax management for high overtime bills at the Tracon, as it is known, and last week it said that it had sharply cut overtime. The place is not short of staff at all, the agency found. In fact, it is overstaffed.

''We have controllers all over this country that work complex traffic every day,'' said Bruce Johnson, vice president of the F.A.A.'s division that handles air traffic.

Then Bobby Sturgell, the agency's deputy administrator, delivered a blow to New York City's reputation. He said a consulting firm, Mitre Corporation in McLean, Va., had performed an analysis that showed the Southern California Tracon, had it worse: New York had lost the perverse distinction of ''worst air traffic in America.''

''In terms of total operations, the Southern California Tracon handles more operations than the New York Tracon,'' Mr. Sturgell said. ''On a complexity basis, yes, we do have Newark, we have La Guardia, and we have Kennedy. But in Southern California, we have LAX, Burbank, John Wayne, etc., etc.'' And the area also has mountains and closed military airspace.

Phil Barbarello, vice president of the controllers' union for the Eastern region of the United States, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, was skeptical. ''I've been to California,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''In Southern California, the airports are 50, 60, 100 miles apart. Burbank's airplanes don't run into LAX airplanes,'' he said.

Mitre took the three busiest air traffic sectors in New York and in Southern California and analyzed the instructions that the controllers had to give to pilots: from simply handing off the plane to the next sector to more complicated ones, like having an airplane change altitudes and turn to avoid coming too close to another. Based on data from three days in March 2005, Mitre said the Southern California Tracon was worse.

Mr. Barbarello scoffed. ''Whatever they did, they got paid to say it,'' he said.

[LeCom]

And it's East Coast vs West Coast again.

[CHI]

LAX is huge, but the other airports are comparatively small. Newark and JFK are enormous international airports, and LaGuardia is a big domestic airport.

[hkskyline]

Next Step for Rerouting Planes May Be in Court
19 August 2007
The New York Times

AFTER nearly nine years of study and more than a hundred public meetings, Federal Aviation Administration officials say they are weeks away from issuing a final decision on how to reroute airline flights over the region to ease bottlenecks in the sky. Communities that fear a sharp increase in the number of flights rumbling overhead are now turning to what they say is their only chance to stave off noise pollution: the courts.

''A lawsuit is a near certainty,'' said Jerome Feder of the New Jersey Coalition Against Aircraft Noise, based in Scotch Plains. ''There are so many legal bases to litigate on, and I believe we can defeat it.''

Mr. Feder said that opponents would argue that the F.A.A. had ignored environmental and economic considerations when it rejected alternative proposals that would have sent more planes over the ocean or above nonresidential areas like industrial plants.

What prompted alarm among many officials in the area was the release early this month of the F.A.A.'s final environmental impact study on its proposals for carving out new routes in the sky. Not only did that trigger a 30-day countdown for the agency to release its final routing plan, now expected shortly after Labor Day, but it also provided fresh details on the F.A.A.'s intentions.

The F.A.A. has not commented on the final scope of the plan but has maintained that any increase in noise would be minimal. ''Nothing is going to happen immediately,'' said Jim Peters, a spokesman for the agency, who pointed out that retraining air traffic controllers to put the changes in place is likely to take several months.

It is widely expected, however, that the F.A.A. will spread flights out over a wider area, fanning departures in what it calls an ''integrated'' solution to gridlock in the skies. The most tangible effect, according to consultants hired by area officials, is that air traffic would be layered, pushing some flights to lower altitudes to make space for other flights above.

It is those additional flight corridors that are at issue, since some would put aircraft noise over areas that either aren't accustomed to it or have reached their limit of tolerance, said Judy Neville, the first selectwoman of New Canaan, a longtime opponent of the F.A.A.'s rerouting attempts.

The agency's plan would put an additional 150 flights over New Canaan, some at altitudes of 4,000 feet or lower, producing far higher decibel levels, Ms. Neville said. The towns of Wilton and Weston could also be affected, she added. ''This is far worse than we imagined,'' she said.

The Coalition Against Aircraft Noise has contacted Ms. Neville and officials in at least a dozen towns in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut that are believed to be among the most likely to feel the effects of new flight patterns. As more information emerges about the plan's possible impact, more communities are indicating a willingness to consider legal action, Mr. Feder said.

This month, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Representative Nita M. Lowey of Westchester County, N.Y., wrote to the F.A.A. administrator, Marion C. Blakey, asking for a delay, and also complaining about the lack of timely information. ''The first major overhaul of airspace in almost 50 years warrants a fair and extensive public notification process,'' they wrote.

The F.A.A. has not formally responded to the legislators, Mr. Peters said, but he added, ''There will be no more meetings.''

How successful any legal challenge to the F.A.A. might be is uncertain. Last month, an attempt in the House of Representatives to block the plan by withholding federal financing was soundly defeated, 360 to 65. The vote came during consideration of the F.A.A.'s overall 2008 budget; several representatives from the region, including Ms. Lowey, Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, and Representatives Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, Scott Garrett and Steven R. Rothman of New Jersey, said they would try to bring up the amendment to withhold financing again.

Ms. Neville, of New Canaan, said she was disappointed by the setback in Congress but understood that many lawmakers were more concerned about rising airport delays than about some districts' noise problems. ''The rest of the country hears that this will reduce delays and they are understandably ecstatic,'' she said.

But she added that the consultants hired by Fairfield County and others have questioned the agency's predictions that, among other things, the airspace redesign would eliminate some 12 million minutes of airline delays each year, for an average saving of six minutes for each late flight. Other studies have suggested that the savings would be negligible, especially if the airlines take advantage of the added efficiency by scheduling more flights.

Recent statistics from the federal Department of Transportation showed that Newark, LaGuardia and Kennedy were the most delay-prone among the large airports in the country for the first half of 2007. The figures also showed that delays nationwide this summer had been the worst since the department started tracking them 13 years ago.

For those who must travel for business or who work in the industry, the economic and psychic benefits of reducing airport delays often compete with their desire to reduce airplane noise at home.

John Owen, a former airline industry executive who lives in Fairfield County under the approach pattern to White Plains Airport, is familiar with the paradox. ''Everybody wants to fly out of the convenient airport, but nobody wants to hear the noise,'' he said. ''You can't have both.''

[beanhead4529]

socal has weather northeast air traffic controllers would kill for. combine that with 100 million+ passengers per year at jfk, newark and laguardia, each of them approx. 10-20 miles of each other can't possibly be good

[hkskyline]

Panel Floats NYC Air Congestion Remedies
6 December 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - Remedies including express flight paths for congested routes could help ease the chronic flight delays that have turned the region's three major airports into a national headache, according to a report released Thursday.

That suggestion was among 100 made by an aviation task force convened by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the beleaguered hubs -- LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports.

The group, which has been meeting since the spring, especially recommended the express flight paths for the route from New York to Washington, D.C. It also suggested reconfiguring the airports' taxiways.

Twenty-seven of the task force's recommendations, including the express flight paths, could be implemented by next summer, with help from the Federal Aviation Administration, the Port Authority said.

None of the proposals is a blockbuster, but together they could be a big help, even if they allow an airport to squeeze through only six more flights an hour, said Anthony E. Shorris, Port Authority executive director.

During peak periods, the airports each now handle between 75 and 100 flights per hour.

The group comprised state officials, aviation experts and airline executives. Their work, however, could be overshadowed by another report due within days from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The department convened its own committee on New York-area flight delays this fall. In September, President Bush said something needed to be done quickly about flight delays in New York because they were disrupting the country's air travel network.

Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Turmail on Thursday said the Port Authority group had highlighted some good ideas for improving operations at the airport, including many the government has begun putting in place or will be done by the end of the fiscal year.

But he said capacity improvements alone might not be enough to handle an expected increase in flights next year.

Federal officials have suggested imposing a cap on the number of hourly flights at Kennedy by next summer if airlines don't voluntarily reduce their schedules.

Turmail said the department believes "market-based solutions" are needed to redistribute flights to less busy times of the day, including a scheme called congestion pricing, in which airlines would be charged more to land or depart during peak hours.

The Port Authority and the airlines vehemently oppose flight caps or congestion pricing, and neither was recommended in the report released Thursday.

[Cosmin]

Originally Posted by hkskyline

Two Crowded Rivals, Filling Up One Clear Sky

LOL! That smells like childish dick measuring all the way. If you ask me, New York has the biggest dick.

First, even though SoCal TRACON services about 60 airports in the vicinity of mountains, let's not forget that only LAX is a huge airport, while NY TRACON has: 2 huge international airports (JFK & EWR) and one major domestic hub (LGA), not to mention other smaller airports, worse weather, Manhattan in the middle, a higher volume of traffic etc.

And TRACONs aside, isn't ZNY the bussiest ARTCC in the US? ZNY is also responsible for PHL airport. I think this also says something about the complexity of the airspace. Busy and complex TRACON inside a busy ARTCC.

[FTL Beach Bum]

Originally Posted by Cosmin

isn't ZNY the bussiest ARTCC in the US?

Surprisingly no, it's 3rd behind Atlanta and Washington Center (Leesburg, VA), as of the April 2007 FAA Administrator's Fact Book:



(Source - PDF page 11)


Many people tend to forget (or don't realize) that all the General Aviation handled by air traffic facilities count just as much of a movement as an airliner, and can give just as much workload & stress to a controller if his screen is filled with 'em. And the greater Atlanta area has plenty of 'em, not to mention that ATL itself is consistently either the first or second-busiest airport in the world (dueling for the spot with Chicago-ORD year after year). And its reach stretches from Georgia to portions of Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. That's alot of area to cover with great flying weather most of the year for mom & pop to buzz around in their Twin Comanche, or for Johnny to make his first solo cross-country (if he elects to utilize VFR Flight Following).

[hkskyline]

Schumer: NY airports need technology to prevent collisions
9 December 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - The region's three major airports lack technology designed to prevent airplanes from colliding with each other, and it could be years before all of them have it, a lawmaker said Sunday.

LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy International and Newark (N.J.) Liberty International airports don't have the surface detection equipment technology that alerts air traffic controllers to potential collisions within 5 miles of an airport, including on runways, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said.

The airports remain at the bottom of the list to receive the new technology, and LaGuardia will be among the last airports to receive it in December 2010, said Schumer, D-N.Y. Kennedy was slated to receive the new system in August of 2008 and Newark in July 2009, he said.

Schumer's comments come three days after a plane taxied onto a runway where a plane was about to land at Newark Liberty. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating that incident, called an incursion.

Also last week, a congressional report said there was "a high risk of a catastrophic runway collision occurring" in the country because of poor leadership, unreliable technology and overworked air traffic controllers.

Schumer called on FAA officials to expedite the installation of the collision technology, which he said was particularly helpful in bad weather and at night, at New York area airports.

"As one of the busiest areas in the country, we should be at the top of the list when new technology is developed to make us safer," Schumer said. "On the heels of this week's scathing report, Thursday's near miss at Newark shows the FAA must not continue to drag its feet."

An FAA spokesman said the schedule to install the technology was based on several factors including how busy an airport is and the complexity of an airport's runway and taxiway infrastructure and procedures. Some airports received the technology ahead of New York's airports while others will get it later, FAA spokesman Jim Peters said.

New York's three airports already have ground surveillance radar although it doesn't offer as much detail about an aircraft's whereabouts as the new technology, Peters said.

Near misses at New York area airports increased from six in 2003 to 13 in 2006, Schumer said.

Although the FAA decided in October 2003 that the new system was ready to be installed across the country, it is operating in 11 U.S. airports, Schumer said. Twenty-four more airports are scheduled to get it.

The lack of the technology combined with understaffed air traffic controller towers at the region's three major airports create "a perfect storm for an accident," Schumer said.

[hkskyline]

Commuter Jet and Boeing 747 in Near Collision at J.F.K.
11 December 2007
The New York Times

A 37-seat commuter jet arriving at Kennedy Airport nearly collided with a Boeing 747 cargo jet on Sunday afternoon when the Boeing, which was supposed to land on a perpendicular runway, failed to do so and continued across the smaller jet's path, controllers at the airport's tower said yesterday.

Controllers were using the perpendicular runways to keep up with the stream of arrivals. The runways are separated by a few feet of grass, but the flight path from one leads directly across the other.

''These airplanes hooked up as much as you could hook up without actually hooking up,'' said Barrett Byrnes, the president of the Kennedy tower chapter of the controllers' union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said yesterday that the agency was reviewing radar data to see how close the airplanes were, but was not immediately able to characterize the situation. She said, ''This was a controlled situation,'' with both planes given instructions after they aborted their approaches.

A spokesman for American Airlines, the commuter jet's owner, said the company's crew members left at the end of their shift without filing any reports of an unusual event. But Senator Charles E. Schumer, in response to the news of the event, said he would meet with the acting F.A.A. administrator to demand that new anticollision equipment be installed at the airport.

Mr. Byrnes said the cargo plane, operated by EVA Air and arriving from Anchorage, had been assigned to land on Runway 13 Left, but touched down too far along the runway, so the pilot decided to take off again. But the commuter plane, American Eagle Flight 753, arriving from Montreal, was approaching Runway 22 Left. Although the runways are perpendicular, the pavement is separated by several feet of grass and do not intersect.

According to Mr. Byrnes, a controller in the tower told the American Eagle plane, an Embraer 135, that the 747 would be passing in front of it but that the American Eagle plane was cleared to land.

''Eagle comes back and says, 'We're going around,''' Mr. Byrnes said. He told the commuter jet that it was cleared, but the pilot said again that he would go around. The plane made a tight turn to the right, to pass behind the 747, Mr. Byrnes said.

He said he did not know precisely how close the two planes came or how much clearance the commuter jet would have had to land under the 747. The turbulent wake of the 747 would have been a concern at low altitude, Mr. Byrnes said.

Kennedy is increasingly using perpendicular runways to manage the flow of traffic, which, controllers argue, adds risk to its operations.

[hkskyline]

U.S. to Limit Air Traffic At Kennedy, Officials Say
By MATTHEW L. WALD and KEN BELSON
Ken Belson contributed reporting from New York and Matthew L. Wald from Washington.
The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10 -- The Transportation Department plans to announce next week that it will impose limits on the number of flights landing and taking off at Kennedy International Airport in an effort to ease congestion and delays, according to officials involved in the deliberations.

For passengers, industry experts said, the move could initially result in fewer flights and higher fares but potentially fewer long delays and missed connections.

In addition, the experts said that if limits were introduced, they would eventually have to be extended to La Guardia and Newark Liberty International because the caps at Kennedy could lead airlines to shift some flights to those airports.

''Will people get hurt? Of course they will,'' said Darryl Jenkins, an aviation consultant who currently teaches at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

He added, ''The flying public is the one that always gets hurt in these things.''

Mary E. Peters, the United States transportation secretary, is expected to give President Bush a list of suggestions next week on how to reduce aerial gridlock in the New York area. The government wants to formulate a plan before the end of the year so the airlines and air traffic controllers can begin preparing for next summer's travel season.

The congestion and subsequent delays at Kennedy, which send ripples across the country and sometimes overseas, came about after Jan. 1, when Congress tried to increase competition by lifting limits on the number of takeoffs and landings.

Although the details of the new plan were still being worked out, industry and government officials said that some flights would be redistributed via an auction and that a few new slots would be created as air traffic control technology improves.

The auction system, which is untested in this country, could result in less competition among more-established airlines and diminish access to the market for smaller airlines trying to introduce new flights.

''Those that dominate will forever dominate,'' said Ed Faberman, the director of the Air Carrier Association of America, which represents smaller airlines.

Mr. Faberman, whose members include Spirit, ATA and Air Tran, added, ''If you are at Kennedy now and you have only a few flights or you want to get into Kennedy and you're only given a few flights, you won't survive.''

But the large airlines say that depriving them of any slots to pare down traffic would represent taking their property.

''We would oppose any auction process that seizes the existing assets of the airlines that have invested hundreds of millions, if not billions, over the years'' to build terminals and other facilities, said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, which represents most major airlines.

Paul Hudson, the executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, said that auctions would impose greater costs on airlines by forcing them to bid for the right to operate some flights, and that they might pass that cost along to passengers.

''You're likely to see a situation like we have with the shuttle,'' Mr. Hudson said, referring to flights between New York, Washington and Boston. ''You have a duopoly, and a very few airlines are basically controlling the system.''

The Bush administration remains determined to apply what it calls market mechanisms to solve the congestion problem. But winning consensus for an auction system will be hard because of opposition from some airlines and from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates New York's airports.

''This suggestion that auctions could be used at the New York airports is lunacy,'' said Robert Mann, president of R. W. Mann & Company, an airline industry consultant. He called it ''reliance on economic and game theory that has no basis in reality, including the actual starting conditions and real world constraints.''

Despite the objections, the Transportation Department appears intent on allocating scarce landing slots at Kennedy because its earlier preference -- charging airlines more for operations at peak hours -- was dropped as a result of resistance from the Port Authority, which collects landing fees based on the weight of an aircraft.

''They are doing whatever they can to divert attention from the capacity problem they haven't fixed,'' said William R. DeCota, the director of the aviation department at the Port Authority. ''You're going to tell an airline they will get some flights, but only at weird times? Or that the rich airlines are going to get them?''

Mr. DeCota said that if slots were auctioned only at New York-area airports and not in other parts of the country, ''there's going to be a lot of basis for people to stop it'' in court.

[hkskyline]

Plan to ration flights in NYC could slow airline growth
12 December 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - British billionaire Richard Branson wants Virgin America to be the next JetBlue, an upstart that challenges the big boys with low prices and dazzles passengers with stylish mood-lighting, black leather seats and an in-flight entertainment system.

But any hope the new airline has of becoming a major player in one of its premier markets -- New York -- could be dashed if federal regulators go ahead with a plan to cap the number of flights at the city's major airports.

The company is one of several whose future business plans may be at stake as the government shapes a plan to battle chronic flight delays by forcing airlines to trim their schedules in New York, where runway bottlenecks now cause problems nationwide.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters is scheduled to deliver a report to the president on the problem next week, and officials have told the airlines she is all but certain to recommend reinstating hourly flight limits at John F. Kennedy International.

Industry experts said that, depending on the program's final shape, flight caps could make it harder for new carriers to expand in New York and force established airlines to be more selective about where they fly.

The end result, Bear, Stearns & Co. analyst Frank Boroch said, could be a cooling-off of the fare wars that have made air travel to the city relatively cheap.

"While airlines may be unhappy with the restraints on some of their opportunities, if they are actually able to deliver their product on time to customers, and reduce costs (related to delays), the industry could benefit," he said.

Passengers may see prices go up slightly, but Boroch suggested the sacrifice might be worth it if their planes, now routinely hours late, arrive on time.

That opinion is not shared by officials at airlines hoping to grow in New York. Caps, they say, will almost certainly mean limited availability of slots to newcomers.

"What this basically means is that if you have a small airline and you want to serve New York, you can forget it," said Edward Faberman, a spokesman for the Air Carrier Association of America, whose members include AirTran, Frontier and Spirit.

U.S. transportation officials have been saying for weeks that Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty have been pushed past their breaking points by the fast expansion of carriers like JetBlue. Fare wars have lured so many fliers that runways at all three airports are now essentially overbooked for several hours each day.

Prior to Jan. 1, the airlines were not allowed to schedule more than 86 operations per hour during peak travel times. Transportation officials have suggested Kennedy can actually handle no more than 81 flights per hour, far fewer than the 100 or more that are now scheduled during the busiest times of day.

Hourly flight limits already exist at LaGuardia, and officials said similar caps are also likely to be added to Newark.

The caps could, in theory, reduce delays by keeping the airlines from over-scheduling, but the restrictions would raise the question of how the government would go about distributing the available slots.

Department of Transportation spokesman Brian Turmail declined to comment on the agency's plans, saying they were still being developed. But DOT officials have told airline executives that one option could be auctioning slots to the highest bidder.

It is not yet clear who could legally collect the money from such a scheme, or what it would mean for airlines with questionable ability to pay prices likely to exceed $1 million (euro680,000) per slot.

Any auction plan would likely face a legal challenge from major carriers, who have spent billions of dollars developing terminals and establishing routes. The Air Transport Association said that if the slots for those routes were then auctioned off, it would make those investments worthless.

Flight caps and slot auctions are also opposed by politicians representing small cities that could see less service if the airlines are forced to pay top dollar for each takeoff or landing.

"I think flight caps should be the very last resort," said Sen. Charles Schumer, who recalled the days when flights out of cities like Buffalo and Rochester cost as much as a ticket to Europe because of a lack of competition.

A number of airlines have asked federal authorities to instead try boosting the capacity of New York's airports -- steps that the Federal Aviation Administration already hopes to take by redesigning airspace and upgrading navigational technology.

Even with those changes, however, the DOT's Turmail said some type of flight cap may be unavoidable. Airlines have informed the DOT that they intended to boost their schedules at JFK by as much as 22 percent next summer -- an increase Turmail said the airport cannot possibly handle.

If rationing has to happen, larger air carriers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports, favor the adoption of a scheduling system similar to one used abroad.

Under that plan, carriers already established at an airport are basically guaranteed the same number of spots they had the previous year. Unused slots, or new ones created by capacity improvements, could be distributed to newcomers by lottery, auction or some other means.

That type of rationing, however, creates problems for newcomers like Virgin America, which began its first flights between the west coast and New York in August. It now has eight flights per day that touch down in New York.

"Certainly it is a key market for us," said Virgin America spokeswoman Abby Lunardini. "We hope to have a presence there going forward. Our main concern is not being effectively locked out."

[hkskyline]

Analysts say plan to cap NYC flights will benefit carriers
19 December 2007

NEW YORK (AP) - Analysts view established carriers such as JetBlue Airways Corp. and Continental Airlines Inc. as winners -- and smaller startups or any carrier looking to grow as losers -- under the federal government's plan to limit the number of hourly flights at New York area airports.

Under new Transportation Department rules set to take effect in March, John F. Kennedy International Airport will be allowed only 82 to 83 flights per hour at peak times, down significantly from 90 to 100 per hour at peak times this past summer. Newark Liberty Airport faces similar caps, though the exact number has yet to be determined. Flight caps are already in place at LaGuardia Airport.

For carriers that already have significant operations at the airports, flight caps help by keeping competitors out.

"It discourages new entrants," said Michael Derchin, an analyst at FTN Midwest Securities Corp., in New York.

That's good for incumbent airlines, but not for consumers.

"A tighter seat supply could enable airlines to raise prices," said Ray Neidl, an analyst at Calyon Securities in New York.

Obvious beneficiaries include JetBlue and Houston-based Continental, the largest carriers at JFK and Newark, respectively. Hurt by the plan are small carriers hoping to launch flights to or from JFK or Newark at peak morning or afternoon travel times. Foreign carriers looking to take advantage of the Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and European Union may find they can serve JFK only at undesirable off-peak times.

Left in the middle are carriers such as Delta Air Lines Inc., which has already ratcheted back plans to add more flights at JFK during peak periods, anticipating flight caps.

"The (Federal Aviation Administration) and (Department of Transportation) must respect our efforts to address delays in the New York area through schedule reductions and ensure that new entrant carriers are not allowed to add new flights in the congested period," said Delta CEO Richard Anderson in a statement.

Bob Cortelyou, Delta's senior vice president of network and planning, said the airline's overall number of flights will not change under the plan. Aircraft will simply fly later in the evening, or during the late-morning to early afternoon lull.

JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the airline is confident it can shuffle its schedule to meet the cap without trimming service.

Larger, established carriers would also be the likely winners in any slot auction process, analysts say. If, in the future, technological or capacity improvements let JFK increase its hourly flights, the government's plan calls for additional slots to be sold off in a slot auction.

"The guys with the biggest pockets," would have the best chances of winning those auctions, Derchin said.

------

Associated Press Writers David Caruso in New York and Devlin Barrett, in Washington, contributed to this report.

[MrColombia]

I dont get why the are going to kill slots at JFK when we all know that when STEWART gets going at full force its gonna ease some traffic for people who live upstate or near that area.


The military needs to open up more AirSpace for this region too...i mean with sufficient technology i dont see why it should be a problem! The NY area is always going to have traffic in the air,on ground, at sea.

So if they are going to kill slots for the airlines to raise their prices thats gonna suckkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!

[VLADKO]

Little note, when You guys talk about aire traffic complexity don't forget airports like Teterboro, Republic, Islip-McArthur, Brookhaven, Linden and also all those rich heliportso n tops of building. All of it is uncotrolled airspace, abve nYc bay up to 1100 feet. but worst thing about it is that those planes can go whetever they want, and legally cessna 172 has a same right being in the airspace just as a heavy 747 when staying with NY approach ATC.

[hkskyline]

FAA plan to reduce flight delays faces political fight over noise; jets wil be re-routed
10 January 2008

NEW YORK (AP) - For years, jets taking off from Newark Liberty International Airport have performed an act of mercy as they roar south.

Moments after leaving the ground, the planes bank left, out over an industrial port district, and away from the residential streets of Elizabeth, N.J., the working-class city that sits right up against the busy airport.

Maneuvers like this are a common method of sparing citizens from the window-ratting noise of jets passing overhead.

But now such practices are being dropped in some places in the Northeast as part of a federal plan to ease record flight delays. And some neighborhoods that fear they will be subjected to more noise are fighting back in court.

On Dec. 19, the Federal Aviation Administration began its first overhaul in decades of the jet routes that crisscross the country's most congested airspace -- a 31,000-square-mile area around New York and Philadelphia.

The corridor has been criticized for years as one of the worst problem spots in the nation's beleaguered air traffic system. Most the paths were laid out in the 1960s. Some date from the earliest days of air travel, and airlines have been complaining for years that they are horribly outdated.

Over the next five years, the FAA will be rolling out new routes it believes can cut flight delays by as much as 20 percent. Some aviation experts say improvements are essential; nearly three quarters of all flight delays nationally are caused by backups in New York and Philadelphia.

But a closer look at the revamped flight routes shows that the changes will lead to more noise for tens of thousands of people, many of whom are already are subject to the whine of jet engines because of their proximity to airports.

In Elizabeth, N.J., the changes will mean that some planes will fly straight over the center of the city.

"The FAA plan will do more harm to the city of Elizabeth than any terrorist incident," said Mayor Chris Bollwage.

"We live next to the airport, so we have to take some noise," he said. But the FAA plan, he added, stretches fairness. "There are places in town where you can touch the tires."

At least 12 lawsuits have been filed so far in an attempt to stop the plan. Congress ordered the Government Accountability Office to examine the FAA's method for choosing the new routes. Top lawmakers from several states have demanded changes. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., threatened to block Senate confirmation of acting FAA administrator Robert Sturgell if the agency doesn't halt implementation.

So far, the complaints haven't stopped the FAA. Last month, the agency began phasing in new traffic patterns at the Newark and Philadelphia airports that allow departing planes to fan out in several directions as they climb, rather than stick to a single path.

In theory, the change will allow more takeoffs per hour, but outside Philadelphia it will also mean more planes over a cluster of suburbs in Delaware County, just west of the airport.

Since the first of the changes went into effect in Philadelphia on Dec. 19, the airport said it has been getting three complaints a day about noise, compared with about one every two days in the previous three months.

FAA officials say the airspace redesign will actually lead to a reduction in noise for a majority of people, largely because the changes will allow planes to fly at higher altitudes.

But sound-modeling data released by the agency reveals that the gains and losses will not be spread evenly. Loud neighborhoods will, on average, be getting louder, while the biggest improvements will be in places that aren't that noisy to begin with.

According to the FAA, an additional 30,600 people will find themselves living in neighborhoods where the average daily aircraft noise level is 60 to 65 decibels -- considered the high edge of tolerable for a residential area.

Noise at that level is far from earsplitting; experts say it is less than residents might experience if they lived next to a busy road. But it is loud enough that people have to raise their voices as a plane passes overhead.

The number of people living in areas where the average decibel level is between 55 and 60 will rise by 79,813.

The big losers will be a few communities near Newark and Philadelphia that already hear a good deal of airplane traffic because of their proximity to the airports. There will also be a slight to moderate increase in noise in parts of Morris and Sussex counties in northern New Jersey.

The big winners are people who live a little farther away, and now hear a medium amount of noise.

By 2011, the FAA estimates that there will be nearly 728,650 fewer people living in areas where the daily noise level is between 45 and 55 decibels -- louder than a refrigerator hum, but quieter than two people talking in a room.

Many of those people are in a corridor running southwest from New Brunswick, N.J. There will also be noise benefits in pockets of densely populated Essex County, N.J., which includes Newark, and parts of northeastern Pennsylvania.

The opposition is not just coming from areas likely to see big changes.

Fourteen municipalities in western Connecticut have been trying to get the plan blocked, largely because it will shift an arrival path for New York's LaGuardia Airport eastward, creating what the FAA says will be slightly more noise for some towns in Connecticut.

"It's a quality-of-life issue," said Rudy Marconi, a spokesman for the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning and a selectman in Ridgefield, Conn., 40 miles northeast of LaGuardia. "Will I get used to it? Probably. But should I have to get used to it?"

[hkskyline]

Air traffic control error puts 2 planes dangerously close
17 January 2008

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - An air traffic controller mistakenly gave a passenger jet the frequency for the wrong airport, an error that put that plane and another landing at Newark Liberty International Airport much closer than they should have been, authorities said Thursday.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the near miss, which occurred at 2:10 p.m. Wednesday between a Boeing 737 and an Embraer 145. The Boeing operated as Continental Flight 536 arriving from Phoenix and the Embraer was Continental Express Flight 2614 arriving from Halifax, Nova Scotia.

According to FAA spokesman Jim Peters, an air traffic controller at the New York Terminal Radar Approach center on Long Island, which guides planes landing at New York area airports before turning them over to airport towers, mistakenly gave the Continental Express crew the frequency for the tower at nearby Teterboro Airport instead of the Newark airport.

As a result, the Newark tower was temporarily unable to contact the crew as both planes approached Newark. They eventually were separated by 1 1/4 horizontal miles, or less than half the three-mile nose-to-tail requirement set by the FAA for planes landing at the airport, Peters said.

In addition, the planes were 600 feet apart in altitude, much closer than the minimum required vertical separation of 1,000 feet.

Both planes landed safely and arrived at the gate about 15 minutes apart, according to Continental.

Ray Adams, vice president of the air traffic controllers union at the Newark airport, rejected the FAA's preliminary conclusion and attributed the incident to the FAA's procedures for landings at Newark.

"We're disputing the fact that the controller made an error," Adams said.

In December, a plane landing on a Newark Liberty runway had to adjust its landing to fly over a plane that had taxied into its path. The planes came within about 300 feet of each other.

[Mauricio Oliveira]

GOOOOODDDDDDDD. BYE..

[hkskyline]

It's no JFK, but new Stewart Airport in NY could ease congestion
26 January 2008

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y. (AP) - The passenger terminal at Stewart International Airport used to be a parachute packing plant. One of the entry roads is lined with abandoned, boarded-up military barracks. New York City is more than 60 miles away.

But the former Air Force base has a runway long enough to land a space shuttle, four times as much land as LaGuardia, half a billion dollars to work with and an onrushing future as an important regional airport.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is converting the airport into what it hopes will be a state-of-the-art facility that attracts millions of travelers a year while serving as a relief valve for increasing congestion at Kennedy International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. Officials also hope it can be an economic engine for New York.

"We have a belief that Stewart can be kind of a beacon for a lot of things," said Anthony Shorris, executive director of the Port Authority, which has a 93-year lease on Stewart and runs the other three airports. "An anchor for growth in the Hudson Valley, a major reliever of the other airports, a cargo and job-generating facility for a new economic growth pattern and a demonstration of the potential for sustainable development in aviation."

Change is already unmistakable: A new exit off Interstate 84 and wide new access roads now lead to the airport. A 350-space parking lot went up in three weeks. New chairs abound in the baggage claim area. The Port Authority took the airport over in November and said it would spend $500 million there over the next 10 years.

Diannae Ehler, the airport's general manager, said that with the arrival of several new airlines, Stewart will serve about 900,000 passengers this year, triple its 2006 volume. It could handle as many as 1.5 million, she said, and she is busily recruiting more carriers, passenger and cargo. Currently, the only international flights coming into Stewart are charters, but Ehler said she will be talking to overseas airlines during a trip to Europe next month.

Ehler's office is in a converted Air Force building, in view of several giant C5-A military transport planes that are part of the New York Air National Guard, also based at Stewart.

Shorris foresees 3 million passengers using Stewart annually within a few years. He said 11 million people who now use the three major airports live in Stewart's "catchment area" -- Westchester County and points north in New York, northern New Jersey and even part of Pennsylvania.

"Obviously not all of them will end up at Stewart," Shorris said. "Some of them are taking a flight to Budapest or whatever and that's not going to come out of Stewart. But many of those people would be attracted, we believe, to high-quality service at a high-quality airport that's in a different airspace from the rest of the New York airports."

The attractions, he said, will include an easy trip to the airport, plenty of close-in parking, comfortable terminals and flights taking off on schedule.

Those factors were all coming together nicely this month for Dan Hurwitz, a 60-year-old math teacher at Skidmore College, who drove 100 miles to Stewart from his home in Saratoga Springs because a flight to Sarasota, Fla., was cheaper there than from the Albany airport that is closest to his home.

"I've wanted to try this airport," he said, killing time over a cup of coffee. "Parking was really easy in the credit-card lot. They told me to be here two hours early but everything's fast. I could have come an hour later.

"My wife and I fly to Germany a lot and we're very familiar with the New York airports," he said. "I can get here in half the time."

The airlines, too, say they appreciate the differences between Stewart and the big airports. Skybus, which began flying out of Stewart to Columbus, Ohio, this month, finds the airport "a perfect fit," said spokesman Bob Tenenbaum.

"Skybus turns its flights around in 25 minutes," he said. "At Kennedy or Newark or LaGuardia, you can easily wait 25 minutes just to land. Stewart is the kind of airport that lets an airline like Skybus serve a major market without using the major airports."

Skybus is adding flights to Greensboro, N.C., next month and expects to expand further at Stewart, Tenenbaum said.

Rapid expansion might cause concern among environmentalists, but Shorris has pledged to develop "the world's first carbon-negative airport," in which terminals, baggage equipment, offices, stores and restaurants "not only do not produce greenhouse gas emissions but actually produce or support enough green energy to begin to offset the emissions generated by the planes."

Steve Rosenberg, a senior vice president at the environmental group Scenic Hudson, said his group wants to "make sure that in fact what the goal is not merely a catch phrase to capture attention and imagination but will result in a real difference." Rosenberg sits on a citizens advisory panel on Stewart set up by the Port Authority.

The theme of a blank canvas was evident later as Ehler looked out across the tarmac at a shrubby rise that blocked the view of the end of the runway.

"I could use that space for airplane parking," she said. "I think I'm going to want to take down that hill."

[hkskyline]

NTSB to probe near collision over JFK airport
8 July 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it is investigating a near collision of two airborne jetliners at Kennedy Airport in New York over the weekend.

The NTSB said initial reports indicate Cayman Airways Flight 792, a Boeing 737-300, and LAN Chile Flight 533, a Boeing 767-300, almost collided on Saturday at 8:36 p.m. EDT.

Federal Aviation Administration officials said Monday the planes came no closer than 300 feet vertically and no more than a half-mile horizontally. But air traffic controllers said the planes came within 100 feet vertically and there was no observable distance horizontally between them, sending the controllers scrambling to put the planes on divergent headings.

The FAA defines a near airborne collision as an incident in which aircraft come within less than 500 feet of each other.

At the time, the Cayman flight was executing a routine "go around" -- an aborted landing that can be initiated by the pilot or by the control tower, usually during periods of heavy congestion -- while the Chilean plane was departing from a nearby runway.

"Tower controllers intervened to attempt to resolve the conflict, assigning both aircraft diverging headings," NTSB said. "The closest proximity of the two aircraft has not yet been determined."

A spokesman for Cayman Airways said the company is disputing the classification of the incident as a near airborne collision.

"We're treating it as a non-issue," said Olson Anderson, the airline's vice president of flight operations.

According to Anderson, the pilot of Flight 792 said the plane's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, or TCAS, did not issue a warning. TCAS analyzes the projected flight path of approaching aircraft to alert pilots to potential collisions.

But Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the three controllers in Westbury, N.Y., who observed the incident told him they saw the two planes converge from two blips to a single blip on their radar.

The planes "passed on top of each other ... There was nothing discernible in terms of any space," Church said. "It sank the hearts of every one of them. It was something they had never seen in 70 combined years of experience."

The Boeing 737-300 typically seats 125 passengers and the 767-300 typically seats 218, said Boeing spokeswoman Liz Verdien.

The board said a preliminary report on the incident is expected later this week.

Over the last few months, federal authorities have investigated go-around procedures at airports in Newark, Memphis and Detroit, all of which use intersecting runways similar to JFK's. Controllers claim these procedures can put a plane performing a go-around directly in the path of a plane taking off on an intersecting runway.

The FAA has changed some of the procedures and said the public is in no immediate danger.

Saturday's incident isn't the first time controllers have complained about what they say was a near collision involving the same intersecting runways at Kennedy. In December 2007, controllers and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said a cargo jet and a commuter jet nearly collided after one of the pilots decided to abort a landing. The FAA said at the time that it had reviewed radar data and the two jets were never in danger.

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AP Writer David Porter reported from Newark, N.J.