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JFK is a mess. This summer, a third of all its takeoffs and landings were late. So what do you do? In what the New York Times characterized as a “pep talk“, the Transportation Secretary suggested charging higher fees for the most popular (and most crowded) slots. If that happens, the thinking goes, airlines won’t over-schedule. |
Won’t work, says the Air Transport Association (which represents the airlines), it’ll just hurt the passengers who will get hit with the cost of those fees. The ATA’s solution? Add airport and air traffic control capacity.
Now let’s hear from the FAA: they’re considering a cap of 80-flights per hour at JFK, which now sees about 100-flights per hour. That won’t make the top 3-carriers out of JFK very happy (Delta, JetBlue and American).
But at least, people are talking about solutions. Something has to be done. So let me open this up to discussion: what do you think would work?
I think air traffic capacity should be increased. The technology they use it 20-year old and it’s time to upgrade. In addition to that I wonder if they can add another landing/take off strip? I also think that Westchester airport (and/or long island airport) can be better utilized for NYC flights. There needs to be a shuttle service to/from the airport that will make it easier to get there.
Comment by ohad — October 29, 2007 @ 12:44 pm
I think air traffic should be decrease and people need to plan better. You CANNOT have FIVE Planes taking off at 9:00 AM - somebody is going to be late. Let be real and post a true time for taking off and landing. Just because we all want to leave NOW does not mean it will happen. There are to many planes in the air at the same time - accident waiting to happen. Yes, the technology needs to be upgrade yesterday. The FAA is doing a poor job and airlines can no longer police themselves. When something happens people are always blaming someone else instead of working on a solution as a team.
Comment by Oliver — January 17, 2008 @ 2:39 pm