As
Bill Sees It (Editorial): New
Jersey's Senator Menendez Threatens To Prevent FAA "Acting"
Administrator From Getting Permanent Job!!! I see New Jersey's senator
Menendez and other politicians are calling for the FAA to hold off on their
airspace redesign plan until the General Accountability Office issues their
report in 2009. Menendez is threatening to hold off the acting FAA
administrator Robert Sturgell's appointment to be FAA administrator!!! Menendez
may lose his own job as he is in big trouble because he was one of the
ringleaders in
supporting the extremely unpopular Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill (AKA
the Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill). Menendez doesn't need a hundred thousand angry New
Jerseyites blaming him for allowing the FAA to dump more airport noise on them
because of his inaction on the airspace redesign scheme!!! Of course, other
pro-aviation expansion senators, like Hillary, Schumer, Lautenburg (who has
"expressed concerns" over the airspace plan), Lieberman, Spector and Dodd
are mostly keeping their mouths shut. No doubt they are hoping that that they
won't be blamed for the increased overflights next election. JFK Flight
"Caps" Will Increase Nighttime Noise Pollution!!! 
Stories
this week told about politician's concerns about increased fares and
passenger inconvenience due to flight cap plan, but few talked about
how more planes are going to be pushed into the "offpeak" hours (FAAspeak
for late night and early morning hours)!!! Not only that according
to a N.Y. Times 
flights
at JFK Airport are expected to increase the number of daily flights!!! I only
hope the people who they allegedly represent remember next election who sold
them out.
I'm
not surprised that New York senator Chuck Schumer is upset that the DOT will put
flight cap limits on JFK Airport during their busiest times, after all he was
the one that help get them removed in the first place. That little stunt
pleased the aviation industry but inflicted increased noise pollution on
Schumer's former congressional district. But what did "Chuck"
care; he was a senator and his past concerns about noise pollution impacts, that
he often expressed while a congressman, were soon forgotten as he wheeled and
dealed with the airline industry and the FAA.
DOT Orders Reduction In Flights At
"Peak" Hours At New York's City Three Main Airports: In the
most sweeping effort to date to ease congestion at New York's three major
airports, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters yesterday ordered a nearly
20 percent reduction of flights per hour during peak times at Kennedy beginning
in March. She also said an airspace "czar" will be appointed to
oversee efforts to reduce delays. Peters, after months of deliberations and
meetings with aviation officials and political figures, said some kind of
similar caps will ultimately go into effect at Newark Liberty International
Airport. Flight limitations are already in place at LaGuardia. In a Washington
news conference, Peters said the number of flights per hour at Kennedy would be
capped at either 82 or 83, depending on time of day. Currently, there are about
100 flights per hour during peak times at Kennedy. Peak hours are considered 7
to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. The caps are to begin March 15, and will remain in
effect through 2008 and 2009. 
Senators
Worried About Flight Delays And Airport Congestion: December 19, 2007 --
Washington, DC – New Jersey and New York’s U.S. Senators announced today
that the Senate has approved two measures they authored to reduce flight delays
and ease congestion in the New York/New Jersey airspace as part of the Fiscal
Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. One amendment would require the federal
government to provide a plan to Congress to reduce flight delays in the New
York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania Region, the nation’s most densely congested
airspace. 
The
other amendment requires the investigative arm of Congress, the Government
Accountability Office, to investigate the Administration’s Airspace Redesign
Plan, as well as the effectiveness of a variety of approaches used nationwide to
reduce flight delays. The Senators called for action after record airport
delays this summer and amid major concerns that the Federal Aviation
Administration’s announced Airspace Redesign for the New York/New
Jersey/Philadelphia area will increase aircraft noise while
providing only minimal delay reductions. “We need real solutions to give
travelers relief from the constant flight delays and cancellations that plague
our region,” said Senator Lautenberg. “Our aviation system is a mess and the
Bush Administration’s proposed fixes continue to fall short. The
Administration’s plans would raise fares, create more aircraft noise in more
neighborhoods and could even worsen delays. Our sensible legislation is a needed
reality check to improve air travel in our region and nationwide.” HERNDON, Va. — Travelers going through Kennedy and Newark Liberty Airports next summer may find somewhat fewer flights at the hours they most want to travel, but are far more likely to leave on time or arrive in time to make connections, federal transportation officials said on Wednesday.
And travelers may even find more flights over all, the officials said, as they announced a combination of agreements and orders intended to eliminate last summer’s miserable delays.
At a briefing here at the Federal Aviation Administration’s strategic command center, the transportation secretary, Mary E. Peters, outlined the results of weeks of negotiations with airlines that produced a painstakingly pruned schedule at Kennedy International Airport.
Beginning in March, there will be a cap of 82 or 83 scheduled flights an hour. Four unscheduled flights will also be allowed an hour; these could be private or corporate aircraft, or airliners that are off schedule. The rules will apply for two years.
In some hours last summer, there were 95 scheduled flights, officials said, and more than 105 would have been scheduled next summer without this agreement.
Ms. Peters said that the expected number of flights next summer would be about 50 higher a day than the 1,187 on a peak day in the summer of 2007, although spread more through the day.
Ms. Peters said the department would begin work immediately on a similar cap at Newark Liberty International Airport to prevent extra traffic from flowing there.
“Stopping the overload in peak hours will make for a significant, significant reduction” in delays, she said, speaking against a backdrop of floor-to-ceiling screens showing a live display of aircraft in flight across the continental United States.
The major American airlines, with no immediate threat to the flights they now operate, said they were pleased with the decision to spread flights throughout the day, which could cut their costs by reducing delays.
Consumer advocates and elected officials gave the plan mixed reviews.
“As a short-term fix, this is a good first step,” said Kate Hanni, who runs the Coalition for an Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights. “It’s going to create an additional 40 to 60 flights a day. Under the current system, there was no possibility that 22 flights were going to get out at 8 a.m. It was an illusion, and the passengers were getting hurt.”
Kevin Mitchell, the chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said, “Spreading out the flights will by definition remove capacity from peak period,” leading to price increases. But if the airport ran with fewer delays, he said, “it may be, on a net basis, worth it.”
D. J. Gribben, the general counsel of the Transportation Department, said travelers were already paying a premium because of unreliability. “If you have an important meeting in New York, you fly in the night before, because you can’t count on the airports,” he said. That means expenses for meals and hotel rooms, he said.
According to a report earlier this month by the New York City comptroller’s office, delays at Kennedy have cost travelers nearly $200 million this year.
Ms. Peters said that new technology would continuously raise the capacity at Kennedy, beginning as early as this spring, and that new slots created that way would be auctioned to the highest bidder, which could be an airline already operating at Kennedy, or one that wanted to add service. She sidestepped the more contentious question of whether airlines now operating at Kennedy would have slots taken away and put up for auction.
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who has predicted that auctioning off slots would raise costs for airlines that would be passed along to passengers, said the auction plan was a “harebrained scheme.”
The International Air Transport Association said no airport conducted auctions of slots to manage congestion. “A takeoff slot at J.F.K. requires terminal space, a parking gate and a landing slot somewhere else,” said Giovanni Bisignani, the group’s director general. “This is a complex situation, and an eBay approach — slot auctions — will not solve the problem.”
At the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, Paul Hudson, the executive director, said: “Capping the number of flight operations to the capacity of the airport is certainly worth trying. If you have more than the number that’s physically possible, automatic delays get built in.”