Minor Tweaks In Departures and Landings Called For

Officials hoping to ease flight delays in the crush of holiday travel are making changes to takeoff and landing procedures at New York City's airports shortly before Thanksgiving. The Federal Aviation Administration said the changes will take effect this week as part of the Bush administration's vision to battle delays, and congested skies nationwide.

Passengers likely won't notice the operation modifications, they are steps geared toward wrenching further efficiency from already congested airspace. Many of the proposals came from a joint industry/FAA task force on New York flight delays that began meeting in September, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The recommendations suggest the following actions to ease travel:

• Simultaneous aircraft landings on certain runways at Newark and JFK to increase airport capacity will be allowed.
• Jets taking off from JFK may be permitted to make a timesaving turn previously prohibited because of a conflict with LaGuardia Airport's airspace.
• Military flights will use restricted airspace off the Long Island coast.
• Aircraft departing Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport will fan out in various directions, rather than use previous set airways and patterns.

Despite these small allowances it all helps, according to David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association of America.

"We're delighted that they're going to be doing something," he said Thursday. New York City's three major airports suffer the worst on-time record in the nation, and are considered critical to the nation's transportation infrastructure due to the large volumes of the country's daily passenger air traffic. The changes are temporary, according to officials, and will be in place for only a few peak travel days around Thanksgiving. Should they succeed, similar changes may be made for Christmastime.

FMI: www.faa.gov, www.airwise.com/airports/us/JFK/index.html, www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/airports/html/kennedy.html