By Philip Newman
Aviation, environmental and government experts, politicians and Queens activists spent Monday discussing LaGuardia Airport in a meeting at which Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey suggested she may well prolong LaGuardia’s flight embargo past its Sept. 15 expiration.
“We’re very pleased,” Garvey told the closing symposium of the LaGuardia Airport Summit at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City organized by U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Jackson Heights). “The FAA slot lottery has reduced LaGuardia’s flight delays from 8,000 to 3,000 a month — from 25 percent to 10 percent of the nation’s flight delays.”
She said the FAA is considering selective pricing of flights, based on the time of day, as part of a permanent solution. “But until we do arrive at such a decision, there seems to be a strong possibility that we would extend the slot lottery,” she said.
Garvey spoke after Queens Borough President Claire Shulman told the forum “we know the limitations are supposed to expire on Sept. 15 and some in Congress say ‘that’s it. No extension.’ So we need to know — and soon —what is going to happen on Sept. 16.”
Speculation had centered on whether the ban on new flights might be lifted, returning LaGuardia to the chaos that reached its peak last September when it accounted for a quarter of the nation’s delays as nearly 1,600 takeoffs and landings took place on a single day.
Shulman turned for a moment from LaGuardia to again proclaim her conviction that a one-seat ride on the AirTrain from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Manhattan is “an absolute necessity.”
The AirTrain is presently scheduled to start service in 2003, but with a change to the Long Island Road tat Jamaica station en route to Manhattan.
In an earlier panel discussion on noise abatement, Kevin Bleach, manager of technical services for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the agency has worked tirelessly for years to mitigate noise from jetliners at LaGuardia.
Bleach told the meeting the Port Authority had since 1990 reduced the number of complaints from residents in Queens and the Bronx adversely affected by jet noise from 750,000 to 37,000.
Murmurs rose from several Queens anti-noise activists.
“With due respect, I do not believe your numbers,” said Sally Khan of Flushing. She suggested the Port Authority conduct what is called a “Part 150,” a study that is required before FAA funds can be obtained for noise reduction.
“What about the cargo planes that make so much noise late at night?” asked Louise McDermott of Jackson Heights, representing Southridge Co-ops Association.
Neil Phillips of Reagan National Airport in Washington conceded his airport does not face the kind of problems LaGuardia does with a dense population surrounding the airport and more limited air traffic routing possibilities.
“But we have a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6:59 a.m. and we enforce it,” Phillips said. “Recently a pro basketball team violated it twice. We fined them $5,000 for their arrival and $5,000 for their departure.”
LaGuardia has a voluntary curfew, although some late arriving flights do land after midnight.
Not all the post-midnight flights are late. Crowley, whose congressional district includes LaGuardia, said his sleep is often disrupted by a Continental jet arriving from Houston. Its scheduled arrival time at LaGuardia is 2:10 a.m.
“Again and again we are told the FAA has no jurisdiction over so many problems since the airlines were deregulated,” Crowley said.
“They tell us they can handle 81 flights an hour at LaGuardia but that they have done 96 an hour,” he said. “That scares me. If not the FAA, who can control this?”
LaGuardia's plight worsened rapidly after Congress in March 2000 passed the Wendell H. Ford Aviation and Reform Act for the 21st Century, known more popularly as Air-21. It included authorization for unlimited flights by what were termed regional jets, carrying no more than 70 passengers to underserved airports where lack of competition had resulted in what passengers saw as exorbitant fares. Soon after Air-21’s passage last summer several airlines applied for a total of 608 new flights at LaGuardia.
In September 2000 the Port Authority imposed a moratorium on new flights and in December the FAA conducted a slot lottery that drastically cut back the number of flights at the airport.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
