JFK Backup, Nationwide Gridlock
Regulators Ponder Traffic Cap, Fees for Peak-Hours Flights

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

NEW YORK -- As federal regulators and airline executives grapple with the nation's growing flight delays, they are focusing on what many believe is the epicenter of the snarls: surging air traffic at this city's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Departures from JFK are up more than 20 percent from last year and 50 percent from 2003. To make matters worse, the increase is occurring in some of the most congested airspace in the world. On bad days, problems quickly ripple across the country, tying up air travelers from Los Angeles to Washington.

Worried that delays will only grow worse next summer, federal regulators began meetings yesterday with airlines that use JFK to find ways to reduce traffic levels. The Federal Aviation Administration hopes to get airlines to voluntarily cap their flights during peak hours. Regulators are also considering other measures, including charging higher fees to operate during the most congested times.

"We have a problem," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said in an interview. "It will grow much worse. . . . If we don't address this now, we are going to have these problems in many other parts of the United States."

Airlines and their trade groups are fighting the proposed caps. They say they schedule flights to satisfy passenger demand and believe the government should do more to boost airport capacity.

"We think we should be increasing operations and not restraining growth," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade organization that represents major U.S. carriers.

More than one in four flights arrived late or were canceled during the first eight months of the year, the industry's worst performance since 1995. There are many factors behind the rise in flight delays.

A major contributor -- which some aviation observers say has been overlooked in the recent debate but has a long history in the airline industry -- stems from carriers' scheduling practices. Although the number of airline flights nationally has held fairly steady in recent years, carriers have been scheduling more flights at certain airports, including JFK.

The airport's annual number of commercial and cargo flights reached nearly 420,000 during the 12 months ended in July, an increase of 140,000 since 2003, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport.

That growth didn't occur in a vacuum. JFK sits beneath some of the most congested airspace in the world, less than 25 miles from crowded LaGuardia International and Newark Liberty International airports. Those facilities are operating at or near capacity, regulators said.

By adding so many flights so quickly at JFK, the airlines have made it difficult for controllers to safely get those flights into the air, regulators said. Backups at JFK then snarl traffic at airports nearby because controllers struggle to fit them into the same airspace.

In August, the three airports ranked among the worst in arrival delays. More than 40 percent of flights to JFK were either delayed or canceled, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. LaGuardia's delays were worse, and Newark's weren't much better.

Because a third of all U.S. flights use those airports or fly through New York airspace on any given day, the region's delays spread quickly across the country, executives and regulators said.

"So goes New York, so goes the air traffic system across the United States," said Dave Barger, chief executive of JetBlue Airways, which operates a hefty chunk of JFK's flights. Barger supports the idea of flight caps at JFK during peak times.

Analysts said it's not just the raw number of flights but how airlines schedule them on a particular day.

Just like Washington with its crammed roadways, JFK and other airports also have rush hours. In the evening, carriers at JFK want to fly lots of big jets overseas, especially to Europe, so they can land in time for morning meetings. They also schedule flights in the morning and afternoon that appeal to business travelers hoping to get in and out of town quickly.

Most of JFK's problems occur in the evening, when the rush hour for business travel collides with the bank of international flights, said Darryl Jenkins, an aviation consultant who closely tracks airline scheduling practices.

"By afternoon, JFK is just overscheduled," Jenkins said. "There is just no way to make those schedules happen."

Controllers said that operations are complicated by the fact that an unusual range of aircraft types use JFK's runways, a mix of small regional jets, medium-size planes and wide-body jets. Smaller planes need more space to take off safely behind larger jets. Properly sequencing those flights during busy periods can be a challenge, especially when bad weather strikes, controllers said.

The scheduling practices at JFK have led to a surge in the number of flights that are chronically late across the country, regulators said.

Through August, the airlines recorded 319 flights that were delayed at least 70 percent of the time in any given month, federal data show. That is up from 245 in all of last year.

More than two-thirds of those chronically delayed flights this year touched New York airspace, regulators said.

The Transportation Department is investigating airlines and could impose fines for operating such flights.

Peters and other regulators said they hoped to get the airlines to voluntarily agree to caps at JFK, which the FAA has proposed to set at 80 or 81 departures and arrivals per hour. During peak hours, airlines often surpass those benchmarks, regulators said.

Regulators are also considering congestion pricing, fees that escalate during peak periods in the hopes of curtailing flights during JFK's rush hour, Peters said.

Airline executives said congestion pricing and caps will curtail flights to towns and cities served by smaller planes. They also warned that they might not be able to support their extensive networks if they must cut back on schedules.

Glen W. Hauenstein, a Delta Air Lines executive vice president, said the government should do more to boost capacity at JFK and not restrict flights. He said the FAA has taken too long to implement a redesign of New York airspace -- it has begun putting the new layout into place -- and should look at all traffic, including flights of private jets, at other airports in the area.

He said Delta, which has substantially beefed up flights at JFK in recent years, and other carriers are scheduling flights at certain times because they want to support passenger demand.

"It's irresponsible for the government to say this is an airline issue," he said. "If JFK is restricted to 80 flights, who is going to pay? The customers."