The New York Community Aviation Roundtable (NYCAR) (Roundtable) met in a full session with both LaGuardia and JFK Airport committees to review recent individual committee activities and move forward with action items. The only problem that with this action was a lack of a quorum to conduct business.
Therefore the October minutes and motions were unable to be voted on leaving some of the attendees unhappy with the lack of attendance by important voting members and inability to take action at this meetings.
Because this lack of attendance has happened before Barbara Brown, and Warren Schreiber, cochairs of NYCAR, had drafted a letter to address the individual members who have missed more than two meetings. The letter stressed the need for attendance or possible suspension of voting rights. In debating the merits of the letter a couple of members felt it did not go far enough in remarking on the lack of attendance while others felt is was a good beginning to get the attention of the voting members.
On a brighter note, other positive activities took pace at the meeting including a presentation by the FAA, and announcement by Nick from the Port and its support of the NYCAR, Both were received well by most attendees and gave further evidence of the Port’s commitment to support of the Roundtable.
A large part of the meeting was a discussion about NEXGEN which is the “FAA-led modernization of our nation’s air transportation system. Its goal is to increase the safety, efficiency, capacity, predictability, and resiliency of American aviation. This overhaul brings together innovative technologies, capabilities, and procedures that improve how we fly from departure to arrival.
Representing the FAA and Port Authority were Jennifer Solomon, FAA Regions and Property Operations and Robert Novia , FAA Manger Airspace Redesign, of the FAA and Ralph Tamburro Delay Reduction Manager at the Port Authority. They covered a lot of ground describing the functionality and scope NEXGEN which included discussions of the proposed implementations which included new LaGuardia and JFK flight routes, runway issues and technology. Some committee members felt that the remarks and decisions made regarding some NEXGEN choices were made without consulting the Committee. FAA Solomon spoke passionately about the need for community communication and collaboration throughout all the stages of implementation of NEXGEN changes and assured the group that their voice will be heard before any changes.
She said that because of the incredible congestion and air traffic in the Northeast area where three major airports are located it is imperative to
find solutions particularly for predictability and safety reasons. NEXGEN is deploying slowly and the FAA has sought and continues to seek recommendations from all stakeholders. Tamburro said that this is a collaborative effort and Port Authority wants to address the concerns of the community.
Nick of the Port Authority report there was a stenographer now in attendance at the Committee meetings to assure that the details of the meeting would be precise. He noted the Port web team is adding NYCAR information to the Port website regularly but it usually takes a couple of weeks to get updated.
Despite the announced delays, the group was happy to see progress with a stenographer and posted notes and presentations to be included on the website. To see the NYCAR information on the Port Authority website, goto this address for a full listing of meetings, presentations and archives of the NYCAR, aka Roundtable. –www.panyn
