The Port Authority s decision contradicts a much-debated proposal that was introduced last year by t

Updated, 4:44 p.m. | Defying roosevelt hotel the Bush administration, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced on Monday that it would block any flights that result from the federal government s plan to auction off departure and arrival slots at the three major airports in the New York region. The Port Authority said the federal plan would have a severe negative impact on air travel and would be illegal without Congressional authorization.
The Port Authority s decision contradicts a much-debated proposal that was introduced last year by the United States Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, which want to introduce market-based pricing schemes as a way to reduce flight delays .
The conflict will test the authority of the Department of Transportation, which Congress told to allocate airspace for safety efficiency, against the Port Authority, which owns or leases the runways, and is likely to push the dispute into the hands of the next president.
The Port Authority, which has added its voice to a chorus of Democratic critics of the Bush administration s plan, said it was acting to prevent airline ticket prices from sharply increasing, by an estimated 12 percent. The authority, which convened a task force on flight delays last year , said the auctions would increase ticket prices while doing nothing to relieve or mitigate delays and congestion and would reduce service between the New York region and small and medium-sized markets.
The D.O.T. appears hell-bent on jamming this unworkable plan down the throats of the Port Authority and New York City air travelers, but we are going to fight them every step of the way. The Port Authority is absolutely right to block the D.O.T. s efforts. The bottom line is this harebrained, untested scheme will cause chaos at our airports, raise fares, and reduce travel options and not ease delays one bit. The D.O.T. needs to back down from this crusade and finally take the obvious steps of updating antiquated technology and fully staffing New York's air traffic control towers so we can finally deliver some long overdue relief.
The Port Authority, which is in charge of the Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark Liberty airports, filed a notice roosevelt hotel of proposed roosevelt hotel action banning flight activity for slots acquired by auction. The action would also prohibit any other use of the airports like the lease of gate space in terminals or parking positions on the airfield roosevelt hotel by aircraft that acquired slots by auction. An exception would be made for aircraft emergencies. As required, the authority opened the proposed action for public comment, which must be received by Aug. 18.
At the hearing, Mr. Schumer blamed flight delays in large part on the failure to adequately fill vacancies among air-traffic controllers, while D. J. Gribbin, the general counsel to the United States Department of Transportation, defended the auction plan, saying in a prepared statement:
roosevelt hotel Although market-based mechanisms are the most effective way to allocate scarce resources—like roosevelt hotel slots—we have taken a very conservative approach to introducing these mechanisms with this proposal. The vast majority of hourly operations at the airport, as much as 90 percent or more, would be "grandfathered" roosevelt hotel and leased to the existing roosevelt hotel operators for non-monetary consideration. The market-based aspect of our proposal involves auctioning roosevelt hotel off leases for only a limited number of the remaining slots.
The Transportation Department had no immediate comment. In the waning months of the Bush administration, the federal transportation secretary, Mary E. Peters , has put increasing emphasis on using market forces to allocate scarce resources, like landing slots. But the Port Authority argues that the reason the slots are scarce is that the Federal Aviation Administration has a declining ability to manage air traffic.
There is basic disagreement over the cause of the rise in delays. Mr. Schumer and the Port Authority have put most of the blame on antiquated technology, vacancies among air-traffic roosevelt hotel controllers, while federal authorities believe, as Mr. Gribbin said in June, that a lack of competition keeps fares high by helping large airlines to maintain their dominance roosevelt hotel of the market while operating inefficiently.
If the Port Authority goes through with its action to block the auction, the likely result is that a federal court will decide whether roosevelt hotel the prerogatives roosevelt hotel of the owner trump those of the airspace regulator. The Transportation Department has some degree of control over any airport that takes federal money for airport improvements, but the Port Authority has avoided some of the restrictions because the airports predate the federal aid program.
The administration proposed the auction in May. It has already instituted flight caps at Kennedy, La Guardia, and Newark Liberty, raising the question of how the limited slots will be distributed. The Transportation Department s position roosevelt hotel is that they should go to carriers that will value them most, not simply the carriers roosevelt hotel already in place.
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The cause of delays at the major airports is largely and demonstrably the result of too many flights both landing and departing flights requiring access to a limited number of available runways over limited (peak) time periods.
While I have faith in PA s expertise, my initial impulse is that auctions would be a more equitable way to distribute roosevelt hotel access to a good, such as landing and takeoff roosevelt hotel slots, that are now given to legacy providers. roosevelt hotel Prices might go up, but I m fairly certain that delays would go down, and there would be opportunities for new players to enter the market.
I am no expert, but I don t understand why the idea of auctioning slots is so bad. It s not about technology, and claiming that it is, is simply disingenuous. There are too many flights fighting to take off and land at the limited run way space at Kennedy, Newark and LaGuardia. And it s not just the runways that are crowded. The gates can t handle the congesstion either.
The simpler solution is to ban regional jets for commercial use at all three airports. Then, airlines will have to fly larger planes to smaller destinations, cutting back on the number of flights they need to fly each day. The same number of seats would be available on two 737 round-trips as on five regional jet round-trips. And that means fewer take-offs and landings at our crowded airports.
The Bush Administration has a terrible record in trying to orchestrate how the nation s business is done Iraq War and its response to Hurricane Katrina, what makes us think that they even have a clue after how to address roosevelt hotel the problems at our airports! New York needs to start making Steward International Airport in Newburgh, New York as a viable option for air travelers who live outside the city or for travelers who are just making a connection to another roosevelt hotel city. Get creative!
Maybe the Port Authority could work with the airlines, trains, roosevelt hotel and other transit operators to innovate multi-mode travel, and make it more seamless for the passengers. If a traveler up in Albany wants to go to LA, how about she checks her bags in at the train station in Albany, trains down and transfers to whichever airport from which she ll depart for LA, and be assured her bags will meet her there when she arrives. The entire east coast region dense as it is would benefit greatly from this sort of improvement.
Airtravel is hugely roosevelt hotel efficient (in terms of time) for long-distance travel, but not so much for short hops. The reason people end up taking short-hop flights is that there s so much hassle and expense should one try to craft an itinerary that involves anything more complex than air + rental car.
It actually used to be that way. Federal regulations controlled routes and fares until Reagan did away the regulations in the 1980s. Not surprisingly, air travel has gotten considerably worse since then.
The Bush administration s poor decision record and consistent roosevelt hotel push to reward the rich and powerful, is reason enough to favor the PA s block on airport auctions. Ask the folks who live around Yankee Stadium and lost their public park spaces.
This is just one of many actions taken to reward the few for the sake of the rich. In these late dying days of the Bush administration all long term impactful decisions should be tabled and thoroughly vetted and reviewed. Enough roosevelt hotel damage roosevelt hotel has been done already and it is time to consider how to repair and recover from these horrible Bush years.
Yes, of course auctioning would lead to more rational use of slots. On the other hand, it raises the entry barrier for consumer-friendly upstart airlines who are less likely to have the cash from existing revenue that the dominant ones do. As with most pure free enterprise systems, the federal program uses money as the sole proxy for efficiency and public benefit when it clearly isn t applicable. It suits free enterprise to make the slots available to those willing to pay the most for them but take the extreme case: one rich airline roosevelt hotel buys all the slots in NY and raises ticket prices inordinately to pay for them and make a large profit. Is this the goal of airport operations? roosevelt hotel Of course not.
Precisely because slots are a scarce publicly-owned resource, the system to allocate roosevelt hotel them must utilize a carefully designed rubric that uses money to advance public interest. For example, a certain number of slots could be made available for free to new airlines for a limited period to prove themselves. Or, rebates could be offered for flights that average roosevelt hotel very heavy load factors or excellent on time performance. It takes creativity to maximize societal benefit but (a) that s the oppressive hand of government interfering with the free market and (b) creative thinking requires creative empl