Airlines Will Limit New York Flights to Ease Nationwide Delays

NEW YORK — Airlines will cut the number of flights in and out of New York-area airports during the busiest hours, the Bush administration said Wednesday as it announced an effort to ease worsening air travel delays across the country.

Much of the nation's snarled air traffic traces back to congestion at the region's three airports, which have the worst on-time records.

The changes could have a broad impact, especially for airlines with large and growing operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport such as Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and New York's JetBlue Airways.

Airlines praised the changes as a good temporary step to relieve congestion, but said more must be done to increase airport capacity. They said that for consumers, the new measures likely would not disrupt near-term travel plans.

But critics of the move said some travelers, especially those flying across the Atlantic or at peak times, could eventually face higher ticket prices and fewer flight choices.

Under an agreement months in the making between major airlines and the government, no more than 82 or 83 flights will be allowed per hour at JFK, depending on the time of day. This past summer, up to 100 flights were scheduled per hour.

This flight cap starts March 15 and is to last two years.

A similar restriction is planned for Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey to prevent excess JFK flights from migrating there. LaGuardia Airport already limits flights.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the caps will not limit the number of flights each day, but are intended to spread flights out to relieve congestion during peak travel hours.

"These limits will do much to end the scheduling practices that try to squeeze in more flights per hour than the runways can efficiently handle," Peters told reporters at a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic command center in Virginia.

She said that while the flight cap agreement is voluntary, the FAA will have a system in place to prevent flight capacity from rising beyond the limits.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the three airports, criticized the decision, saying the caps underestimate capacity and "will cut the number of passengers at JFK, reduce travel options, and increase prices for every passenger."

The caps also may not be practical, said Tim Sieber, vice president of the Boyd Group aviation consulting firm.

"It's very easy for the Transportation Department to say that the airlines don't have to get rid of flights, that they can shift them to other hours, but that defies the scheduling paradigm that the airlines use," Sieber said. "A lot of flights do connect with each another, and if you're missing connections it's sort of death by a thousand cuts."

Hardest hit may be airlines with trans-Atlantic flights, since favorable departure and arrival times are limited, Sieber said.

"Who the wants to arrive in London at three in the morning?" he said.

Delta, which has made a big push to expand international flights and sees JFK as a key to its strategy, could see its growth plans hurt by the new cap, Sieber said.

Delta does not plan to cancel flights or raise prices because of the cap, but will have to move about 20 percent of the JFK flights that occur during the peak hours of 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. to hours before and after that period, spokeswoman Chris Kelly said.

She said the carrier is aiming to avoid rescheduling international flights, since "your international travelers need to have a full business day when they land in Europe the next day."

While Delta approves of the short-term caps as a way to relieve congestion next year, "there needs to be a long-term solution here," Kelly said, noting the need for better technology, among other changes.

JetBlue spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the solution is increasing capacity.

JetBlue, which is JFK's largest flight operator but does not fly trans-Atlantic, expects to be able to reschedule its flights to meet the caps, although the number of flights that will change is still uncertain, spokesman Bryan Baldwin said.

Other government measures announced Wednesday to relieve flight congestion include appointing an aviation "czar" to oversee New York's airspace and pursuing improvements to increase traffic control and airport capacity such as new satellite navigation procedures for bad weather.

As regional airport capacity increases, new flight slots would go up for auction, the government said. The revenues would go to airport and airspace improvements.

That plan drew the most criticism from the airlines and other critics.

The auction idea is a "harebrained scheme" that could have unintended consequences for travel options and fares, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

"The bottom line is we wouldn't be in this pickle if the FAA would do what everyone knows it needs to do — invest in new technology, adequately staff control towers and better manage our airports and our skies," Schumer said.

As previously announced, the government will open military airspace over the East Coast to commercial flights during certain periods over the next few weeks to aid holiday travel. That was last done during the Thanksgiving travel period.

Peters said Wednesday that these latest "holiday express" lanes will also operate over the West Coast for flights in and out of southern California.

But all the announced steps, including the New York flight caps, are "Band-Aid" measures, said Sieber, the analyst.

He said that in New York and elsewhere, "ultimately the goal has got to be updating the air traffic control system to meet consumer demand."