Could Another NYC-Area Airport Be In The Offing?

By ANN Senior Editor Pete Combs

NBAA is on the job.

That's the word from Senior Vice President for Operations Steve Brown, who's closely monitoring the situation at Teterboro Airport

"The FAA will take a data-driven approach," Brown told ANN in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. "Sure, there have been incidents at TEB, but over the past five-to-ten year period, Teterboro has done pretty well" on safety issues, he said.

Brown said his organization has been in close contact with the Port Authority over the past several months, working on many of the issues that surfaced Tuesday.

"We've been discussing with the Port Authority plans to help pilots fly friendly and quiet," he said.

So if the NBAA has been working closely with the authority, then why the Tuesday pronouncement?

"We were not at all caught off-guard. Elected officials in New Jersey are searching for possible avenues of intervention. They're concerned about what's happened in the last couple of months. But we're in the aviation industry and we understand the statistics," Brown said.

"We're engaging on all fronts. Absolutely," he told ANN. "We're talking about safety issues, more lighting and more runway markings. These discussions are very productive."

Brown said the item that caught his attention in ANN's article on the Teterboro issue Tuesday was the Port Authority's mention of a possible fourth airport in the New York City area.

"New York doesn't have the capacity at those [other three] airports," he said. "[A fourth airport] would be welcome by everyone."

Of course there's land to buy and zoning decisions to be made, in the single most populous market in America. But that's another story.

FMI: www.nbaa.org