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FAA-2007-29320 - Operating Limitations at JFK
Airport Level Designation for EWR Airport for Summer 2008 - December 19, 2007
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Operating Limitations at JFK
September 21, 2007 Counsel: FAA, Kerry Long
September 24, 2007 Department of Justice Response to Meeting Description The Department is not presently inclined to initiate antitrust enforcement action against any carrier that participates in the FAA's flight reduction meeting and conducts itself in the manner described in your September 21 letter. The Department reserves the right to bring an enforcement action against any conduct that violates the antitrust laws. By: DOJ Antitrust Division, Thomas Barnett, 202-514-2401, antitrust@usdoj.gov
September 24, 2007 Delay Reduction Actions Regarding JFK By the authority vested in me pursuant to 49 USC 41722, I hereby determine that it is necessary to convene a meeting or air carrires with the Administrator to discuss flight reductions at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, such airport being severly congested, to reduce overscheduling and flight delays during peak hours of operation at that airport. By: FAA Administrator, Bobby Sturgell
October 12, 2007 Having reviews your determination that a scheduling reduction meeting is necessary with respect to operations at JFK and the factual bases underlying your determination, and understanding that the work product of the ARC shall be incorporated into the final decision on schedule reductions, I hereby determine, by the authority vested in me by 49 USC 41722, that a scheduling reduction meeting is necessary to meet a serious transportation need or achieve an important public benefit. By: DOT, Mary Peters
On File at Federal Register October 17, 2007 Notice of Scheduling Reduction Meeting and Request for Information | As Published in Federal Register October 22, 2007 The FAA will conduct a meeting to discuss flight reductions at JFK Airport to reduce overscheduling and flight delays during peak hours of operation at that airport. This meeting is open to all scheduled air carriers, regardless of whether they currently provide scheduled service to JFK, and to the Port Authority of NY and NJ, which is the airport operator of JFK. The FAA plans to issue its decision on scheduling limitations in a final order. The FAA will hold the scheduling reduction meeting on October 23-24, 2007, beginning at 9:00am, and the meeting may continue, if necessary, until adjourned by the Administrator. Any written information on the subject of schedule reductions at JFK, including data and views, must be submitted by November 6, 2007. By: Kerry Long
October 19, 2007 Notice of Targets for Scheduling Reduction Meeting On October 16, 2007, the FAA issued a notice convening a scheduling reduction meeting at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 5 41 722(c). The notice is on display at the Federal Register and will be published on October 22, 2007. A copy is available on the FAA website at http://www.faa.gov and in Docket FAA-2007-29320. The Administrator has established the following targets for the purpose of the meeting. The targets include both scheduled and unscheduled operations, up to four unscheduled operations per hour. Regularly conducted air carrier flights, such as cargo and charter flights, will be considered as scheduled operations even if they do not appear in the Official Airline Guide. The targets apply to operations from 6:00 a.m. through 9:59 p.m. local time, daily. The total operations target is 80 operations per hour, except for the 3 p.m. through 7:59 p.m. hours, when it is 81 total operations. The 30-minute maximum is 44 operations and the 15-minute maximum is 24 operations. Since the best runway configurations at JFK reflect either two arrival runways and one departure runway, or two departure runways and one arrival runway, the mix of arrival and departure demand is important to achieve maximum aircraft throughput given the predominant runway configurations. Therefore, additional limits on arrivals and departures are necessary to balance demand. The number of arrivals or departures may not exceed 53 in any 60-minute period, 29 in any 30-minute period, or 16 in any 15-minute period. For this analysis, the period from July 2005 through July 2007 was reviewed. The hourly value for each day reviewed was the higher of 1) actual aircraft throughput or 2) the number of operations that air traffic control established for each hour. In this way, the capacity was adjusted upward to consider periods when the actual throughput was less than the available capacity. The average adjusted capacity increased during the two year review period. During the July 2005 through June 2006 period, the average adjusted airport capacity was 74 operations per hour. The period from July 2005 through July 2007 averaged 77 operations. The period July 2006 through June 2007 averaged 79 operations. During the period from February 2007 through July 2007, the average adjusted capacity was 8 1 operations per hour. By: Robert Sturgell
October 23, 2007 JFK: Average Daily OPSNET Operations - Chart
October 26, 2007 Recess of the October 23-24, 2007 Scheduling Reduction Meeting By: Michael Sammartino
November 6, 2007 Comments of the Air Carrier Association of America It is critically important that steps to improve on-time performance and reduce delays do not impact growth plans by carriers that only operate a few daily operations at JFK. Small carriers should not be prohibited from expanding due to the scheduling actions of carriers that dominate JFK and the New York airports. Some of those dominant carriers have more than fifty times more arrivals than small carriers. These dominant carriers should not be able to add flights to close the airport. Closing the airport to entry would be a mistake that would hurt consumers, carriers, and the entire industry. LGA is already closed to new entry, and the New York area' cannot afford to have a second airport closed. Small carriers are not the cause of the congestion as they operate a very limited number of flights and many of these are not even at congested time. Since they are not causing the congestion, they should not be subject to these consequences caused by large carrier congestion. If JFK becomes a closed airport, small carriers would suffer greatly. Many, if not all, limited incumbents at JFK entered the airport with long-term plans to slowly expand operations. Closing the airport to expansion of these carriers and to new entry will make this growth impossible and could force these smaller carriers out. Without being able to add additional flights in the future, they will not be able to compete with the large carriers. Carriers must operate at least a dozen arrivals in the near term with other options to grow in order to best utilize facilities, equipment, and staffing. By: Executive Director, Edward Faberman
November 6, 2007 Comment of The Air Transport Assocation In a business driven by competition to respond to the public’s demand for low fares and convenient passenger and cargo air transportation services, restricting access to JFK, the leading international U.S. gateway, rightly is viewed as a failure – a failure of vision, policy and execution by the FAA and DOT. While it may be an expedient way to address delays, it is by no means the right solution. ATA urges the FAA to focus its resources on implementing immediate, achievable capacity enhancements at JFK and in the New York area airspace, and modernizing the nation’s ATC system. To the extent the FAA believes schedule adjustments are necessary as an interim measure, ATA urges the FAA to use the IATA Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines so that all airlines, not just domestic airlines, share the burden of reducing or adjusting schedules. The § 41722 process is inherently discriminatory to the extent only domestic airlines are forced to adjust or reduce their schedules. If schedule adjustments do result from this schedule reduction initiative, then those airlines that make adjustments should be given the first opportunity to take advantage of any new capacity that becomes available. Finally, the hourly operations target for JFK should be increased. It is set at an unreasonably low number.
By: ATA, David Berg, 202-626-4000, dberg@airlines.org
November 6, 2007 American does not support incomplete and ineffective piecemeal solutions to the overall problem of congested airspace and airports in the New York City area. The long-term solution to congestion in any region - including New York - is increased capacity, not restricted schedules. Operating limitations should be imposed only when absolutely necessary, only until capacity can be increased, and only for the purpose of managing congestion. This is particularly true for a critical domestic destination and international gateway like New York City. By focusing on increased capacity - both at airports and in U.S. airspace - the public will not be forced to choose between permanently reduced schedules and chronic delays. American strongly supports adoption of the IATA worldwide scheduling guidelines for New York area airports - and any other region with chronic delay problems. The IATA process has been proven to work around the world, and its adoption would be far easier for airlines than an entirely new regulatory scheme that is untried and unnecessary. Imposing caps on only LaGuardia and JFK will simply give carriers an incentive to shift operations to Newark. Given the level of delays experienced at Newark today, that airport can hardly accommodate the burden of increased scheduling. This is especially true given the current limitations on New York area airspace. Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl.nelson@aa.com
November 6, 2007 Comments of Atlas Air Worldwide On the merits, the FAA's announced plan to cap and allocate JFK arrivals and departures is deficient in several important respects. It would constrain flight operations during hours in which airspace capacity equals or exceeds anticipated demand. By assigning flight authorizations to scheduled aircraft operators based essentially on their historical usage and potentially reserving a mere two to four authorizations per hour for all unscheduled aircraft operations, it would unfairly favor scheduled airlines as a class and disadvantage those having a more flexible business model. This would harm a variety of cargo operators, which rely more than passenger airlines on unscheduled operations, and would be especially unfair to Atlas and Polar, which have over the last 14 years, established JFK as a main base of operations. Because JFK is a significant point of operation for us, it is essential that we be able to conduct even non-revenue flights to fulfill maintenance and operational requirements, so as to position aircraft for the many military missions that we operate. Should the FAA insist on re-regulating JFK operations before frilly evaluating capacity expansion opportunities, it ought not to extend the administrative control mechanism to unscheduled and/or all-cargo flights. Failing that, and as the absolute minimum, the FAA should allow Atlas and Polar to continue operations at their historical levels or allot a much larger number of flight authorizations for use by unscheduled operators. Also, the regulatory mechanism must have sufficient flexibility to ensure that we and similarly situated carriers can obtain arrival and departure authorizations early or relatively close to flight time, depending on how far in advance the flight commitments are made. By: Atlas, William Flynn
November 5, 2007 Comments of the Cargo Airline Association The importance of air freight transportation to the U.S. economy cannot be overstated and every effort must be taken to ensure that all-cargo flights are not unnecessarily disrupted. As a practical matter, the all-cargo industry, as a group, is not in any way the cause of the congestioddelay problem at JFK or any other New York airport. We fly a limited number of large jet aircraft, with schedules designed to meet the needs of shippers worldwide. Many of our flights are during off-peak hours and relatively few are during the times of peak congestion. In view of the importance of all-cargo service and the already limited number of operations, CAA respectfully urges that all-cargo flights be allowed to continue at their current levels (including charters), with no required operational cutbacks. We are especially concerned that an hourly cap of a mere 2 or 4 operations for all charter and other nonscheduled operations - including passenger as well as cargo flights - would prevent this from occurring. Although the FAA has apparently defined peak hours as 6:00 a.m. to 9:59 p.m., the FAA "scheduled operations chart" for JFK International reveals that the periods of 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. have scheduled operations well below airport capacity. We also are perplexed why the FAA would even consider imposing caps during hours of the day in which it has forecast capacity to equal or exceed demand. As noted in the footnote above, this is the situation in six of the 16 hours slated for capacity controls. One of this Administration's basic tenets is that consumers are benefited most when the goods and services they receive are made available as a result of the functioning of market forces. By imposing an operational cap during non-constrained hours, the FAA would be deviating sharply from that principle. While this proceeding is concerned only with the issue of potential schedule reductions, it is important to recognize that other solutions to the congestion-delay problem are being considered in the context of a DOT Aviation Rulemaking Committee. Although individual Association members are ARC participants, CAA itself is not. Nevertheless, we think it is important to note that the problem in New York is likely to continue long term, and short term scheduling adjustments may not be sufficient to address the underlying causes of the congestion. Therefore, CAA, while not at this time supporting any particular method, believes that all possible avenues of proceeding should remain on the table. Hourly operational caps should be viewed merely as a stop-gap measure. In addition, perhaps most importantly, we feel strongly that the FAA itself must immediately move aggressively to take all available steps to relieve congestion. And these steps should be taken before imposing any draconian "solutions" which limit all-cargo operations, either scheduled or charter. Finalization of airspace redesign, acceleration of the NextGen effort, changes in current ATC practices and an immediate review of the actual capacity of the airports is absolutely necessary. It is neither appropriate nor fair for the burden of this effort to fall solely on the airline industry. By: CAA, Stephen Alterman, 202-293-1030, salterman@cargoair.org
November 6, 2007 Comments of Delta Air Lines - Bookmarked Delta remains committed to partnering with FAA in finding a solution for the congestion and delays in the New York area, including JFK. However, for those efforts to be successful, the FAA must modify the approach it has undertaken. FAA should raise the proposed targets for JFK to reasonable levels, and at least to the levels that were applied under the HDR. It should expand the process to other New York area airports, so that all stakeholders in the NY airspace issue can share in the solution. It should Counsel: Delta, Scott McClain, 404-773-6514, Scott.McClain@delta.com
November 6, 2007 We are very concerned about possible actions that could impact our ability to operate and remain competitive. It is essential that steps to reduce operations do not impact growth plans by carriers that only operate a few daily operations at JFK. Eos (the only new US. international carrier based at JFK) should not be prohibited from expanding due to the scheduling actions of carriers that dominate JFK and the New York airports. Some of those carriers have more than fifty times the number of arrivals that Eos has. These dominant carriers should not be able to add flights to close the airport. Counsel: Wiley Rein, Edward Faberman, 202-719-7402, efaberman@wileyrein.com
November 6, 2007 Comments of Northwest Airlines Northwest is concerned that JFK not be addressed in isolation -- but as part of regional solution encompassing Newark, LaGuardia, Teterboro, White Plains, Morristown and other airports contributing operations to the heavily congested N90 TRACON facility. Northwest's flights at Newark, and occasionally LaGuardia, experience delays that can be as bad or worse as those occurring at JFK. LaGuardia is already operating under a system of Operating Authorizations designed to limit delays. It makes no sense to address only JFK and leave Newark as the next pothole in the New York metro region. Moreover, high performance General Aviation aircraft operating in the New York region compete for the same arrival and departure routes, and have an undeniable impact at the commercial service airports. Northwest strongly believes that the principle of fixing airport capacity at a level of realistic, sustainable operations - and managing that capacity through voluntary compliance measures - is vastly preferable to the alternative of "congestion pricing" which for a variety of reasons is ill suited to the airline network environment. Counsel: Northwest, Andrea Fischer Newman, 202-842-4184
November 6, 2007 If demand constraints are required at JFK, UPS supports the process initiated by the FAA to seek voluntary reductions in operations. If the capacity enhancements and voluntary reductions are not sufficient to substantially reduce delays at JFK, UPS supports the IATA process as the best method for managing demand at JFK. If this process is adopted, there must be supplemental or local additional rules to address the unique aspects of operations at JFK, In any demand management scenario, we would like to see formal recognition that operation of large transport category aircraft and operation of aircraft carrying high value, time sensitive shipments be afforded the highest priority in the allocation of slots. Also, in any slot allocation scenario, there must be a secondary market mechanism to support future growth and to direct available slots toward those carriers that can provide the greatest economic benefit. By: UPS, Bob Lekites
November 6, 2007 Unlike other airlines, Virgin America believes that those airlines that contributed the most to JFK congestion should contribute the most to delay reduction by reducing their schedules. It is also essential in the context of JFK schedule reductions that the FAA, consistent with past practice and congressional intent, continue to set aside an adequate number of scheduled arrival and departure times for new entrants and limited incumbents. As a recent new entrant airline with only eight daily roundtrips at JFK, Virgin America accounts for less than two percent of all daily scheduled operations at JFK. Virgin America did not operate at JFK for most of the summer of 2007 - the time period when one-hour and longer delays became the norm at this major airport. Given the current and future size of its proposed JFK operations, Virgin America has not been, and is not expected to be a significant contributor to operational delays at JFK. It also has no regional jets in its fleet serving small-and mid-sized community service, which given the large domestic and international markets served from JFK, should adequately be served from LaGuardia Airport. Virgin America appreciates the difficulty of the FAA’s task under 49 U.S.C. § 41722, but opposes any interim approach to reduce scheduled operations without special treatment for new entrant or limited incumbents. Virgin America also opposes freezing the number of JFK operations for all carriers at historic levels and believes freezing levels will seriously undermine competition at JFK, where the three largest carriers now account for 75% of all scheduled flights. Counsel: Pillsbury Wintrhop, Kenneth Quinn, 202-663-8000, kquinn@pillsburylaw.com
November 15, 2007 Response of American Airlines to Comments of Virgin America While American agrees with Virgin's argument that the burden of schedule reductions should fall on those carriers which have recently increased their schedules, we find Virgin's request for "preferential treatment" to be unacceptable. Not only would Virgin's proposal make the congestion problem worse at JFK, it is premised on the belief that one carrier should be allowed to expand while others are being forced to make reductions. If Virgin has suggestions on how to remedy congestion and delays for air traffic in the New York City area, it should focus on participating in the New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee rather than distracting the FAA's attention from the limited purpose of this proceeding - schedule reductions at JFK. Counsel: American, Carl Nelson, 202-496-5647, carl.nelson@aa.com
November 20, 2007 Supplememental Comments of The Air Transport Association of America - Bookmarked The FAA should reject Virgin’s demand that any program to cap and allocate slots at JFK must afford special treatment to new entrants and limited incumbents through a preferential set-aside of scheduled arrival and departure times, and by permitting them to schedule a minimum of 30 daily operations each during restricted hours. Virgin is wrong in contending that such special treatment is mandated by statute and compelled by public interest considerations. And its objections to use of the WSG as a mechanism to relieve congestion at JFK (and other capacity-constrained U.S. airports) are unfounded. At the end of the day, Virgin’s position amounts to little more than special pleading by an airline that seeks to implement in full its business plan—developed with full awareness of the constraints at JFK—leaving to others the task of solving the serious congestion problems that Virgin knew existed when it commenced operations last August. Virgin instituted service at JFK with its eyes open and has no legitimate claim to benefit from special governmental largesse. Counsel: ATA, David Berg, 202-626-4000
November 20, 2007 Comments of The International Air Transport Association In its submission, Virgin America argues that U.S. policy supports accommodation for new entrants at congested airports. As demonstrated above, IATA’s WSG is consistent with that objective. However, the general policy of supporting new entrants does not require DOT to mandate that new entrants obtain the same or greater access to congested airports than that enjoyed by incumbent carriers. The IATA WSG and its grandfathering provisions promote stability in the international aviation system, in part by reflecting the type of investment incumbent carriers have had to make at airports to support the delivery of a specific operation 80% of the time in the previous season. The provisions of the WSG, along with a robust secondary market, allows for new entrants to gain the access they need to congested airports over a reasonable period of time in a manner that does not disrupt an efficient competitive marketplace. There are two other points raised in the Virgin America submission that serve to mischaracterize the WSG and its application in the market. First, the Virgin America submission suggests that the WSG does not have application in a domestic market. To the contrary, the WSG is utilized to manage both domestic and international flights at some of the world’s leading airports, including Frankfurt, London, Paris, Toronto and Sydney. Second, Virgin America suggests that the IATA approach may be effective “in situations overseas where low-fare carriers cannot or do not fly to major airports” but is not appropriate for the U.S. market. To the contrary, the IATA approach is utilized at many major airports at which new entrants have been able to establish a significant presence, including Paris Orly, Madrid, Barcelona, Geneva (where EasyJet is now the largest operator), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro and Toronto. Counsel: IATA, Douglas Lavin, 202-628-9292, lavind@iata.org
November 21, 2007 Comments of The Air Carrier Association of America In a perfect world, all carriers would be able to add as many flights as they desired in order to meet demand and hopefully such a system will eventually come about. However, in the meantime we must remember that adoption of the IATA Guidelines will neither enhance competition nor promote the efficiency of the aviation system. Therefore, until airports can handle unlimited growth, government requirements must keep available opportunities for new entry and expansion of limited incumbents and the IATA Guidelines must not be adopted for domestic service. Counsel: ACAA, Edward Faberman, 202-719-7420, epfaberman@acaa1.com
On File at Federal Register January 15, 2008 Order Limiting Scheduled Operations at JFK - Bookmarked As Published in the Federal Register - January 18, 2008 This Order establishes a temporary limitation on the number of scheduled operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration is issuing this Order as a result of a persistent number of flights above capacity at JFK during the peak operating hours. We intend this Order to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public caused by excessive congestionrelated flight delays at the airport, which magnify as they spread through the National Airspace System. Among other things, this Order will reduce the average length of delays and provide for a more efficient use of the nation's airspace. This Order takes effect at 6:00 a.m., Eastern Time, on March 30, 2008, and will expire at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on October 24, 2009. The FAA previously determined that a limit on scheduled operations is necessary to address the increased level of flights over the past two years and. in particular, flights added during the peak afternoon and evening hours. These additional flights resulted in summer 2007 schedules well in excess of the airport's optimal capacity. The limits apply to all air carrier and foreign air carrier scheduled operations, excluding helicopters, from 6:00 a.m., Eastern Time, through 10:59 p.m., Eastern Time. The FAA will soon issue a proposal to establish limits on unscheduled flights at JFK during the same hours and a system to allocate the available reservations. This Order follows the conclusion of a scheduling reduction meeting conducted by the FAA with air carriers and the Port Authority ofNew York and New Jersey under the FAA's authority in 49 U.S.C. § 41722. The 15 air carriers that attended the meeting also met individually with the FAA to review their schedules. In addition to the meeting's collective and individual sessions, the FAA invited all interested individuals, organizations, and business entities to file their written views in the public docket associated with this proceeding. TIns Order is enforceable under the FAA's civil penalty authority. By: Robert Sturgell
On File at The Federal Register February 8, 2008 As Published in the Federal Register - February 14, 2008 The Federal Aviation Administration is amending the Order Limiting Scheduled Operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport that published in the Federal Register on January 18, 2008. This amendment corrects technical errors in the Order. Specifically, this amendment clarifies that the use-or-Iose provisions of the Order will mirror the lATA Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines; changes the office within the FAA responsible for handling appeals from the Air Traffic Organization to the Office of the Chief Counsel; and provides for a five-day notification period in the event a carrier transfers an operation within a marketing code for irregular operations. This document also clarifies several aspects of the Order without substantively changing the applicable requirements. Counsel: FAA, Kerry Long |
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