Boyer Personally Explains GA's Opposition To Rep. Rothman's New
York "No-Fly" Zone
AOPA President Phil Boyer took the fight for GA
right to those who would restrict it. The AOPA's Boss met
personally with anti-GA New Jersey Representative Steve Rothman to
explain the truth about general aviation and to
register again opposition to the congressman's
proposal to place a 15-nautical-mile "no fly" zone for GA aircraft
around New York City. Rothman has asked members of Congress to
support his plan, saying, "It is unacceptable that New York City
has not been given the same protections from general aviation
aircraft that Washington, D.C., has received." Rothman's no-fly
zone would include Teterboro Airport, one of the busiest general
aviation airports in the nation.
As recently as last Thursday, the aeronautically ignorant
Rothman has claimed that general aviation aircraft could
"potentially cause a tragedy greater than the one we had on
September 11" if they were filled with chemical or
biological agents. But in his conversation with Boyer, the
congressman said his primary issue was to "preserve the present
character" of Teterboro as an exclusively general aviation
airport.
Both Rothman and the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey (which owns Teterboro) are concerned about charter
carrier Indigo Airlines, which is offering four flights a day from
Teterboro to Chicago's Midway Airport without the same security
controls as a regularly scheduled passenger airline.
Boyer, who met with Rothman (a member of the powerful House
Appropriations Committee) in his Hackensack, New Jersey, office,
said he was there representing the 10,000 AOPA members in New
Jersey and nearly 400,000 AOPA members nationwide. He explained who
general aviation pilots are and the very limited threat that GA
aircraft present.
He asked Rothman to explain the real problem he was trying to
solve with his draconian "no fly" zone. The congressman indicated
he wanted to ensure that passenger-carrying airlines did not use
Teterboro, that there were other airports in the New York/New
Jersey system that were better suited to airline service.
Rothman told Boyer, "I want to preserve the
present character of the airport" as an all-GA operation. Boyer
agreed that that was essential. But Boyer also explained that the
non-discrimination clauses in FAA airport grants prohibited placing
limitations on the kind of operations using an airport. In most
cases, those clauses ensure that general aviation aircraft also
have access to large air carrier airports, but those protections
also worked in favor of airline operations as well.
Boyer pledged to work with Rep. Rothman by providing examples of
how this issue had been fairly resolved in other communities. But
he reiterated that AOPA and general aviation pilots would continue
to oppose a New York no-fly zone as unnecessary and
discriminatory.