FAA, airlines brainstorm on N.Y. gridlock

With all four of its runways in use, the airport is supposed to be able to handle as many as 100 aircraft movements per hour, according to its FAA rating. But on most days, it handles about 68 per hour. The situation is similar in Newark, which has a maximum capacity rating of 80 takeoffs or landings per hour, but usually can perform only 65.

Delta has tried to cut through some of the problems by regularly asking to fly less congested corridors, including ones that detour planes 60 or 70 miles out of their way just to get free of New York.

But more often than not, Edwards said, the planes are instructed to stick with traditional flight headings by overworked air traffic controllers who don't want aircraft moving through their sectors on unfamiliar routes.

"It's a difficult pill for us to swallow," he said. "The airspace definitely needs to be redesigned."

In August, only 59 percent of arrivals and 63 percent of departures at JFK were on time, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Newark was only a little better, with 62 percent of arrivals and 66 percent of departures on time. Laguardia saw only 58 percent of its flights land on schedule.

Those numbers chronically rank among the top five worst in the country. Delays at those airports regularly run to two or three hours, even on days when the closest bad weather is hundreds of miles away.

The FAA has already come up with a sweeping redesign for the airspace around New York and Philadelphia. Both the agency and the airlines say it could cut delays by as much as 20 percent. But the plan has been repeatedly delayed due, in part, to opposition from lawmakers whose communities that might hear more plane traffic.

Members of the flight delay task force say they have other ideas that might help.

Some airlines have asked that a rarely used section of the skies off the east coast, now reserved for the military, be opened up to commercial carriers.

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The airlines have also asked the FAA to appoint a "czar" to oversee the independent control centers that coordinate traffic in the region — someone who would have the authority to address delay problems decisively.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer backed both of those ideas Thursday, and chided the FAA for not implementing them sooner.

"These are slam dunks for the FAA," Schumer said. "It's befuddling why they haven't done them already."

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He also said the FAA should immediately follow through on its already-announced plan to convene a meeting of airlines to talk specifically about scheduling issues at JFK. The aim of the talks would be to cut down on instances when the carriers have collectively planned too many flights for the airport at the same time.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said all of those ideas, and more, will be considered in the coming weeks. President Bush has asked the task force to report back by December.

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