New York-Area Leaders Criticize Plans To Cap JFK Flights

Mayor Bloomberg, business leaders, and officials at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey yesterday came out swinging against a Bush administration plan to cap the number of flights at John F. Kennedy International Airport, arguing that shrinking the number of planes allowed to use the hub airport would damage the region's economy.

"Nobody wants to have delays, but getting rid of the planes to get rid of the delays is literally throwing out the baby with the bath water," Mr. Bloomberg said at a press conference, urging the Federal Aviation Administration to find ways to make the airport accommodate more flights.

Flight delays are costing New York area travelers $187 million in wasted time on the ground, according to a report by the city comptroller, William Thompson Jr.

Under a plan announced yesterday by the secretary of transportation, Mary Peters, the major airlines serving JFK will have to cap the number of hourly flights at a total of 82 or 83, depending on the time of day. Currently, major airlines run about 100 flights into and out of JFK during a peak hour. The caps take effect March 15 and will be in place through 2009.

Ms. Peters touted the caps as a method of cutting delays and supporting New York's economy, but New York business leaders said they feared the opposite.

"Reducing flights to 1969 levels is not a solution, but a rollback that threatens to severely damage the regional economy," the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, Kathryn Wylde, said in a statement. Port Authority officials have urged the Bush administration to implement a congestion-pricing plan that would charge airlines different prices based on the time of day they were landing their planes.

The Partnership, which represents more than 200 business groups in the city, is planning to undertake a study to measure the cost of airport congestion on the regional economy, and it is urging federal officials to hold off on the flight cap.

Airlines will also be encouraged to shift more flights to off-peak hours, which could allow for 50 more flights a day than were offered last summer, Ms. Peters said.

To accommodate heavy holiday traffic, Ms. Peters said the Defense Department would open military airspace to commercial flights between December 21 and December 26, and between December 28 and January 2.