JFK blues
October 27, 2007 by David Reich-Hale
You might remember that the U.S. Department of Transportation said last week that John F. Kennedy International Airport needed to cut peak flights in order to stop chronic flight delays. The DOT argued that the number of flights out of JFK needed to be trimmed to 80 — far fewer than the 100 or more now scheduled for peak travel periods.
The executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, however, retorted that the flight cuts would force the airport to handle 10,000 fewer passengers per day. Anthony Shorris, the executive, called it “no solution at all.”
In the meantime, several airlines have agreed to change their schedules to smooth out the busy afternoon and evening hours. Crain’s reports that Delta and JetBlue said they would shift flights from the peak hours of 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
But Delta’s chief made it clear he thought the FAA was headed down the wrong path.
“We want to participate in the short run with the FAA, even though we don’t think it will be efficient in the long run,” Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson said.
