DOT Asks Airlines To Come To Agreement On Cutting Back
The Department of
Transportation's much-bandied airline summit on efforts to restrict
capacity at New York's JFK International Airport kicked off
Tuesday.
"We have a serious problem at John F. Kennedy International
Airport. The chronic delays too many have experienced at JFK impact
travelers to and from New York, and across the entire aviation
system," said DOT Secretary Mary Peters. "President Bush has made
it clear that the conditions travelers experienced this summer are
unacceptable and must be fixed. When nearly a third of scheduled
flights are cancelled or delayed… when passengers are
stranded for hours on runways… it is easy to understand why
consumer frustration is reaching the boiling point.
"The President has tasked me with finding solutions to this
problem and with providing as much relief to travelers as we can in
the shortest amount of time possible."
As ANN reported, Peters
(right) put the call out October 12 for representatives of the
airline industry and the FAA to meet, and discuss ways to voluntary
restrict flights at JFK during the busiest hours of the day...
which, anymore, is pretty much any time the sun is shining. She
also charged a group of airline, airport and travel officials with
developing a series of additional measures to reduce congestion at
New York’s three major airports before the start of the 2008
summer travel season.
The DOT notes airlines
at JFK increased their scheduled operations by 41 percent between
March 2006 and August 2007. As a result, the number of arrival
delays exceeding one hour increased by 114 percent in the first 10
months of fiscal year 2007, compared to the same period the
previous year.
During June and July 2007, on-time arrival performance at JFK
was only 59 percent, she said.
Last week, DOT release its
target figures for flight restrictions at JFK: from 0600 to 2159
local time daily, the target for the number of flights per hour is
80 -- except for 1500 to 1859, when the target will be 81 flights.
To better space flights throughout an entire hour, the Department
also set a 30-minute maximum of total flights at 44, and the
15-minute maximum at 24 flights.
In addition, the number of arrivals or departures may not exceed
53 in any one hour period, 29 in any 30-minute period or 16 in any
15-minute period.
Peters stressed at Tuesday's opening session she doesn't want to
give any airline an advantage,
"I am not in favor of a system that limits competition, nor do I
want to reduce the ability of new entrants to fly into New
York<" she said. "We are serious about exploring all options to
reduce congestion in the New York region, and we must consider
schedule reductions.
"Today is the day to think about the passengers," she said. "We
have got to make sure the options customers have are real."
Given that Peters speaks of an industry that routinely
overschedules operations -- and overbooks flights -- we'll have to
wait and see on how successful those efforts will be.