Travelers using any of New York’s three metropolitan airports this holiday season can expect more delays, more often, than travelers using any other major airport in the nation, according to a study released yesterday by Senator Schumer.

The senator called upon the FAA and the Bush administration to combat the delays, which he said are “much worse than in the rest of the country.”

Mr. Schumer said the metropolitan area’s three airports hold the nation’s poorest on-time performance record. Between January and September of this year, about 30% of flights to Kennedy were delayed. About 32% of flights to La Guardia were delayed during the same period. Newark Liberty, with more than one in three flights delayed, has the lowest on-time rate among the nation’s 33 busiest airports, the senator said. Philadelphia’s airport was the fourth worst, with a 29% on time record.

All three New York area airports had a greater likelihood of delays in 2005 than in 2004.

Salt Lake City’s airport ranked highest for on-time performance this year among the 33 busiest, with 16% of flights delayed.

“This is one place you don’t want New York to be first in, but we are,” Mr. Schumer said at a press conference at his office in Manhattan on the eve of the busy Thanksgiving travel week. “You just can’t tolerate these kind of delays.”

A spokesman for the Port Authority, which operates the three New York area airports, said some delays were unavoidable because of the sheer concentration of flights in and out of the area. “Three airports being so close together is a situation you’ll find nowhere else in the country,” Marc Lavorgna said. “And our air travel numbers are skyrocketing.”

“We are doing everything we can to make the airports as efficient as possible,” he said.

Mr. Schumer said he would be pressing for steps to combat the delays, including requesting funds for a new control tower at La Guardia, which could lighten delays. He also called on the FAA to expedite a planned redesign of the airspace over New York, as well as implement new runway monitoring technology at area airports.

An FAA spokesman, Greg Martin, said the agency hoped to equip New York area airports with such monitoring technology within 18 months, though he said he doubted the technology would reduce delays. “The runway monitoring technology is primarily a safety measure,” he said, noting it is designed to prevent runway collisions. “It wouldn’t really have any effect on delays.”

Mr. Martin said the FAA was “moving forward fairly aggressively” to finalize a redesign of New York’s airspace, noting that the agency last month added new routes over the Atlantic Ocean for flights between New York and Florida, a heavily trafficked route during the holiday season.

Mr. Martin said he had not had time on Sunday to review Mr. Schumer’s findings, but he said that some delays at every airport were unavoidable because of factors such as weather and flight rerouting.

The Newark Star-Ledger reported over the weekend that the Port Authority had formed a task force after three recent security breaches at Newark Liberty airport made public last week. In the past six weeks, a passenger was allowed to board a plane without a ticket; Continental Airlines acknowledged loading checked baggage without screening for explosives, and a drunk driver was waved through a security checkpoint without authorization, the newspaper said.

The Port Authority announced it had formed a task force that will meet weekly over the next three months to strengthen anti-terrorism measures at Newark. “We don’t anticipate delays as a result of any new security measures,” Mr. Lavorgna said. “But, I don’t think anyone would be upset if things were slower at the airports due to new security measures.”