It’s one of the most convenient airports in the country, and one of the most delay-prone. It’s one of the smallest major aerodromes out there, and one of the busiest. Love it or hate it, New Yorkers can’t do without LaGuardia (LGA), but they could do without the seemingly endemic delays.
To that end, another proposal to solve the chronic problems that plague the Big Apple’s picked-upon pocketport. This time the suggestions come from David Stempler, President of the Air Travelers Association.
Stempler, whose group sits on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) influential New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee, calls for a “Passengers First” solution to the slowness infecting LGA.
Specifically, the Air Travelers Association would have the government:
– Eliminate all corporate jet operations at LGA, and convert those corporate jet ramps to airline use, rendering them holding pads for delayed commercial flights. Stempler says there are other airports that corporate jets can use in the metro area, and getting rid of them at LaGuardia “would immediately add airline operating slots.” The proposed holding pads would give airliners a place to park off busy taxiways where passengers could get up and use lavatories, move around the cabin, and use cell phones to call ahead and tell people they’ve been delayed;
– Eliminate “non-standard” departures from LaGuardia. By “non-standard” the association means departures that, “involve the use of a runway by an aircraft when that runway is not in use.” The passenger’s group says aircraft request non-standard departures when they can’t take-off and climb, as loaded (within FAA requirements) from the runway that’s actually in use at the airport. The analogy? “It’s like sending a car down the opposite direction of the Long Island Expressway in rush hour.” Non-standard departures engender delays and disruptions;
– Eliminate all published airline connections at LGA. New York LaGuardia is a classic “O&D” (origin and destination) airport. Unlike JFK or Newark Liberty, people don’t usually fly into LaGuardia to connect. They go there to get to New York City. Published connections represent just 5 percent of LGA’s total passengers. But eliminating that could speed things up;
– Consider dumping the airport’s 1,500-mile perimeter limitations. The association says this rule comes from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It essentially limits nonstop flights to and from LGA to destinations within a 1,500-mile radius. Get rid of the restriction and, the theory goes, you could cut delays at JFK and, “in the entire New York area;”
– Change the definitions of “delay.” DOT defines a delay as occurring when an airplane fails to arrive or depart within 15 minutes of schedule. The association contends that definition, “is not meaningful in today’s congested flying environment.” For example, a 15-minute delay on a one-hour flight is, argues the Air Travelers Association, more significant than a 15-minute delay of a six-hour flight, 25 percent for the former, 4 percent for the latter.
These proposals, especially the one dealing with axing business jet traffic, are sure to spark controversy. However, in the aviation arena these days, just about everything regarding air traffic congestion at, and over, New York’s crowded airports does.
© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler
