Report: 25% of Flights Delayed or Cancelled at NY Airports

Flight delays at New York's three major airports cause a ripple effect that snarls air traffic nationwide, and the U.S. Office of the Inspector General wants the FAA to please consider possibly doing something about it. A new report [pdf] stops short of demanding that the FAA reduce the number of flights scheduled at the airports, but calls upon the FAA to "reexamine" the scheduling rules, or else... there might be another report in a couple of years! Right now one-quarter of all flights in and out of New York and Newark end up delayed or canceled.

In 2008 the FAA imposed new caps barring airlines from scheduling more than 83 flights per hour at JFK and Newark, and 81 at LaGuardia. This is manageable when the weather's decent, but during inclement weather the capacity drops to 64-67 flights per hour at JFK, 69-74 at LaGuardia, and 61-66 at Newark. (It's been estimated that New York causes three-quarters of all delays in the United States, but the report says that's an exaggeration.) As of August, 26 percent of incoming flights at LaGuardia and JFK arrived late or were canceled in 2010; at Newark it's 28 percent. The delays cost the U.S. economy billions.

The Inspector General wants the schedule limits to be more flexible, and points to the rules at London’s airports, where there are fewer flights allowed during the winter months. (London has 20 percent fewer delays than New York.) Of course, the airlines don't want to reduce the flights they squeeze in and out of NY's airports. "There are better solutions than restraining capacity by imposing flight caps," one airline flack tells the AP. "The FAA must ensure that we are utilizing these important airports to their full capacity." And Jeffrey Zupan, a transportation expert at the Regional Plan Association, opposes lowering scheduling caps, because "that’s not solving anything; that’s hoping the problem will go away."

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By John Del Signore in News on November 4, 2010 11:29 AM

Comments [rss]

bonanzabucks

Article is misleading in a lot of ways. Healthrow airport, in London, handles more flights than any NYC airport (460K a year vs. 415K for EWR and JFK and 360K for LGA) and it’s also way more delayed with 50% of arriving flights late. That’s far worse than any NYC airport. The reason London’s overall numbers might be better is because Gatwick and Stansted are much quieter since they’re out of the way and have worse connections. But even with all the scheduling and ATC tricks the BAA has used for years to “alleviate” delays, they’re desperate and have been begging the UK government for an extra runway in Southeast England, especially Heathrow.

As for freight, NIMBYs prevent extensive use of airports on Long Island. Plus those airports aren’t operated by the Port Authority. Secondly, cargo flights mostly arrive and depart in the middle of the night when airports are quiet. Doesn’t affect traffic that much in the daytime and evening. Besides, LGA barely gets any cargo traffic since it’s too small and doesn't have the facilities. SWF (in Newburgh) is much too far and too small for extensive cargo operations. The PA has tried hard to promote SWF as a reliever airport to JFK, EWR and LGA, but they’ve failed because, again, it’s too far and has poor connections to the City. Airlines, and passengers, don’t want to go there despite of all the incentives the PA have offered.

Honestly, there’s not much that can be done for LGA and EWR since they lack additional capacity. JFK has four runways that are spaced far enough apart to allow them to be used simultaneously. Currently, only two or three are used at the same time (Heathrow only has two runways and still handles much more traffic). If the FAA changes procedures to allow all four to be used, you have extra runway capacity there. But in the long-run, since traffic will always grow in the region, the only solution will be to build additional runways, otherwise the region will suffer economically.

Scottilla

Why are freight flights still using the 3 major airports? Freight doesn't care where it lands. Send the freight to Long Island and Newburgh, where there are plento of open slots, and plenty of open land, and keep JFK, LGA and EWR for the pasengers.

TeddyNYC

The FAA should reduce the number of flights at all 3 airports to 70 per hour. This would force airlines to use larger aircraft as they combine flights and think twice about keeping some poorly performing routes. Not every small town with a airport deserves a nonstop flight to New York. Enough with all of these half-empty regional jets flying here from places like Roanoke, VA.

PTG in nyc

I don't know if you pulled Roanoke, VA out of your ass or are using a very specific example, but last I checked, the airlines are deregulated (unlike Amtrak which is federally funded and mandated to go to random places that lose money) and the main storyline about them the past few years has how they've been consolidating and taking unprofitable routes out of service. Small city and town airports have been suffering and shuttering, not benefiting, over the recent years.

Again, you might have experience with empty flights to Roanoke, but from what I've seen and heard, airlines are more efficient than ever and happy to ax unprofitable routes.