"Port Authority to ban more rush hour flights at LaGuardia"

Friday, September 22, 2000

Port Authority to ban more rush hour flights at LaGuardia
The Associated Press


NEW YORK - Citing unacceptable delays, the agency that runs LaGuardia
Airport has told airlines they can add no more regional flights during the
morning and evening rush hours, The New York Times reported Friday.

The ban, which some airlines are challenging, would prohibit airlines from
adding new regional flights between 8 and 10 a.m. and 5:30 and 8:30 p.m.,
officials said. The plan was detailed in a letter to the airlines this week
from Robert E. Boyle, the director of the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey.

"The level of delay has increased to an unacceptable level," Boyle wrote,
adding that airlines have ignored requests to reschedule flights to non-peak
hours.

The ban, effective Oct. 1, is intended to prevent what LaGuardia managers
see as the gridlock that could result from as many as 600 more takeoffs and
landings a day, the report said.

A federal law passed last year created more slots at airports for smaller
regional jets that hold up to 71 passengers. Boyle wrote that since then,
nearly 200 more regional flights a day have already been added at LaGuardia.

Agency officials told the newspaper that the Port Authority, as the
airport's landlord, has the power to act to prevent flight delays from
worsening. But some airline officials questioned that.

"You can't put a moratorium on an airport," said Greg Brenneman, president
of Continental Airlines. "Nobody has ever done that before."

Officials from the federal Department of Transportation said they were
reviewing the action. A spokesman for the agency said there was no formal
process in place for mediating disputes between airlines and airport
managers over flight restrictions, the Times said.

Port Authority officials would not say Thursday how many or which flights
would be affected, but said the flights do not necessarily have to be
canceled, just moved to other times.

Last year, there were 371,000 takeoffs and landings from the airport, up
from 358,157 in 1998 and 345,647 in 1996.

Earlier this year, San Francisco International Airport came to a compromise
with United Airlines, shifting some of the airline's regular flights to help
ease congestion in peak periods.

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