For months, Port Authority officials tried to sound
the alarm about a federal law that paved the way for hundreds of new
regional flights at LaGuardia Airport. They wrote to airlines,
federal regulators and local members of Congress, warning of
potential gridlock at the airport. But the pleas were largely
ignored.
Then last month the agency took one of the boldest steps an
airport manager can take: It told airlines they could not add more
flights at LaGuardia during peak hours starting Oct. 1. Within days,
regulators organized a flurry of meetings between the airlines and
Port Authority officials to discuss how flights can be moved to
off-peak times or even other airports.
Aviation experts say the moratorium could be struck down in a
court challenge. Yet the ban has prompted airlines to acknowledge
for the first time that LaGuardia cannot handle the 600 additional
flights a day planned under the new law-a 50 percent increase. There
already are 200 more flights a day since the law was signed in
April, making LaGuardia the nation's worst airport for delays and
renewing complaints in Queens about jet noise and air pollution.
"There is a real crisis at LaGuardia," American Airlines' chief
executive Donald Carty told a U.S. House aviation subcommittee
hearing last month.
"Something has to give or the situation is going to deteriorate."
The AIR-21 law eased longtime restrictions on adding flights at
LaGuardia and Kennedy Airports by allowing regional jets holding up
to 70 passengers to fly to underserved markets such as Buffalo and
Rochester. The added traffic prompted the Port Authority to ban new
flights between 8 and 9:59 a.m., and 5:30 and 8:29 p.m.
So far, airlines appear to be complying. But the moratorium could
still provoke a showdown: Federal law says that airport operators,
along with state and local governments, cannot impose restrictions
that affect airline prices, routes or service. Airlines use the
so-called "pre-emption rule" to challenge the policies of local
airport agencies. The same federal law also says that airport
operators can exercise "proprietary powers and rights." Many
aviation cases have hinged on a court's interpretation of these
conflicting factors.
"Courts have found that airport operators might need to impose
some limits to control the surface aspects of their operation," said
Kent Krause, an aviation law professor at Southern Methodist
University in Dallas.
The Port Authority has been involved in two important cases that
upheld an airport operator's right to impose restrictions. In 1987,
the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Western Airlines'
challenge to the Port Authority's "perimeter rule" at LaGuardia,
which prohibited nonstop flights exceeding 1,500 miles. The
authority argued that the rule would help reduce congestion at
LaGuardia by diverting leisure travelers to Kennedy and Newark
Airports.
The appeals court found the Port Authority's argument convincing
because it manages all three major airports in the New York area and
it is able to run them as a single system. That could help the
agency withstand a challenge to the ban on new peak-hour flights,
experts say.
"The Port Authority is in better standing than most other
operators because it controls all three airports in the region, and
there's a case on the books that upheld its right to manage an
airport," Krause said.
In a previous case in 1969, a federal court upheld the Port
Authority's right to impose a peak-hour surcharge on private jets
and charter planes to discourage them from using the three major
airports. The agency wanted to divert this kind of traffic to New
Jersey's Teterboro Airport, which is also managed by the Port
Authority.
Even so, aviation experts say, the moratorium on new flights
could face a serious court challenge because no other U.S. airport
operator has ever tried to impose such sweeping restrictions to
manage congestion.
"In some ways, this is harking back to the days of government
regulation of the airline industry, and I'm not sure how well that
would sit with the courts," said Seth Young, an aviation management
professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach,
Fla. "People in the industry will be watching closely to see if the
Port Authority can pull this off." Darryl Jenkins, executive
director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University,
said the Port Authority probably exceeded its power by imposing the
flight ban, but it may be able to stave off an immediate challenge
because of mounting consumer frustration with airport delays across
the country.
"They definitely got everyone's attention with this ban," he
said. "The key will be whether it can lead to long-term change."
Port Authority officials acknowledge that the moratorium is
unprecedented, and they insist that it's a temporary solution while
they develop a new system to manage regional flights at LaGuardia.
In addition to shifting flights to off-peak hours, the agency is
encouraging airlines to move regional service to Kennedy, where only
13 new flights are planned.
"It's true that no major airport operator has attempted to do
this," said Arthur Berg, a Port Authority lawyer. "But no airport in
the country has faced the crisis that we're facing at LaGuardia."
The U.S. Transportation Department so far has not indicated that it
would challenge the Port Authority's right to impose a ban on
flights.
DOT spokesman Bill Mosley said regulators have held several
meetings with Port Authority and airline officials. "The goal was
not to focus on the legal issues but to concentrate on solutions,"
he said. "We're going to see some kind of resolution very soon."
While many airlines challenged the ban shortly after it was
announced, they have failed to present a unified front since then.
The Washington-based Air Transport Association, the airlines'
major lobbying group, has not taken a position on the moratorium.
"Our members have varying views on this issue," spokeswoman Diana
Cronan said.
If the Port Authority does face a legal challenge, agency
officials would likely make the same argument they made to the
airlines when they imposed the ban: Air traffic has exceeded
LaGuardia's capacity during peak hours and delays are becoming
intolerable.
The boom in regional service has contributed to a threefold
increase in delays at LaGuardia, according to the latest figures
from the Federal Aviation Administration.
In September, there were 10,733 delays at LaGuardia, meaning that
30 percent of all flights were delayed at least 15 minutes. Last
September, about 10 percent of all flights were delayed.
In July, delays at LaGuardia surpassed those at Newark Airport,
which had long been the nation's leader in delays. The reason, FAA
officials said, is that LaGuardia has too much traffic. On Sept. 11,
a new record was set for most takeoffs and landings at LaGuardia in
one day: 1,381.
"If I increased traffic on the Long Island Expressway by 10
percent, you would logically expect delays to go up," said Mark
Hatfield, air traffic division manager for the FAA's eastern region.
"That's what's happening at LaGuardia." Delays attributed to airport
congestion rose from 317 in July to 3,236 last month, the first time
that volume delays have reached four figures at a New York-area
airport, Hatfield said.
As an example of how volume delays can happen, Hatfield said on
one weekday this month, 10 flights are scheduled to leave and 12 are
scheduled to arrive almost at the same time, from 7 to 7:04 p.m. The
airport can safely handle only seven total arrivals and departures
during that five-minute period, under good weather and other ideal
conditions.
"You don't have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to know
that I'm going to have aircrafts left over that I can't
accommodate," Hatfield said.
He said there's no way to speed up the process of moving planes
because flights must be spaced in the air for safety reasons. "We've
never shortened the spacing between aircrafts," Hatfield said.
"That's why people can expect to have more delays." Airport
operators across the country will be closely watching how events
unfold at LaGuardia. The airport is a microcosm for what experts say
is a chief cause of air travel problems: a dramatic increase in air
traffic that has overwhelmed airport infrastructure.
"There's no question that the Port Authority's moratorium will
have implications throughout the air travel system," said Richard
Gritta, an airline industry expert at the University of Portland in
Oregon.
Young, the aviation management expert at Embry-Riddle, said
airlines often argue that it's an airport manager's responsibility
to provide the infrastructure necessary to accommodate growing
traffic.
"Some airports that are at capacity seek funding to expand, but
the problem at LaGuardia is that there's no room to grow," he said.
"There's not much the Port Authority can do." LaGuardia is hemmed in
between Flushing Bay and the Grand Central Parkway.
There's no room to build another runway that could handle more
air traffic.
Another way to limit flights, especially during peak hours, is to
increase the fees that airlines must pay to use an airport. Port
Authority officials say they're looking into a higher-pricing system
during peak hours, but they must contend with a federal law that
requires fees to be nondiscriminatory. In other words, the agency
can't price out small carriers.
Some experts say peak-hour pricing has been only moderately
effective in limiting flights because airlines tend to pass the cost
on to passengers. Young noted that much of the regional service at
LaGuardia is geared to business travelers, who would be willing to
pay higher fares to fly during the most popular times.
"They've tried peak pricing at London's Heathrow and Gatwick
Airports, but it's been limited by customer preferences to fly at
certain times," Young said.
Others worry that peak-hour pricing would drive flights late into
the night, causing more aggravation for the airport's neighbors.
"We don't want night flights," said Queens Borough President
Claire Shulman, who has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the
AIR-21 law. "The communities around the airport put up with a lot of
noise during the day. It wouldn't be fair for them to have planes
going over their homes at 3 o'clock in the morning." 'There is a
real crisis at LaGuardia.' -Donald Carty, CEO of American Airlines