"Feds claim some progress in sorting out the airport mess"

Monday, December 3, 2007

Feds claim some progress in sorting out the airport mess
Newsday (NY)


While still scrambling to come up with solutions to the chronic flight
delays at Kennedy Airport, the U.S. Transportation Department said Monday
its efforts to cut down on a mounting number of late flights is having some
impact.

DOT Secretary Mary Peters said in an announcement from Washington, D.C.,
that airlines have taken steps to fix chronically delayed flights. Among
them are changing flight routes, adding flight crews and making additional
aircraft available.

This all didn't come about by magic. Peters said it was the DOT's threat of
"severe penalties" against airlines that got some of the carriers moving.

In August, the DOT sent 18 airlines a letter -- the second letter in three
months -- saying they might face fines of as much as $25,000 if they
continued "unrealistic" scheduling. The next month, DOT said, the number of
flights that were late 70 percent of the time or more fell by 81 percent.
On-time arrivals are defined as those within 15 minutes of their scheduled
time.

In October, DOT said, the number of flights late at least 70 percent of the
time fell to 118, from 477 a year earlier, a 75 percent drop. "Tough
scrutiny and a willingness to impose serious penalties have caused the
airlines to correct these chronically delayed flights," Peters said in her
announcement.

As far as Kennedy and LaGuardia are concerned, the DOT admits the problems
are far from over. DOT has put out some proposals, none of which were
particularly appealing to the airlines. One would impose caps on the number
of flights into JFK, and the other would involve
congestion pricing. 

But matters at Kennedy might get worse before they get better. Now, smaller
airlines such as Virgin America are pushing for increased slots at JFK,
saying they deserve a shot at the big market in New York City.

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