NJ, NY Senators Work to Get Government Answers about Reducing Flight Delays

As Major Concerns Remain Over NY/NJ/Philly Airspace Redesign, Two Successful Amendments Will Mandate Assessments of Available Options

September 12, 2007, Washington, DC – New Jersey and New York’s U.S. Senators today successfully passed legislation that would mandate the federal government to provide answers about plans to reduce flight delays. The Senators successfully attached two amendments to the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which passed the Senate today, requiring the government to report on available options, which is particularly important to the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania Region – the nation’s most densely congestion airspace.

The amendments, which will go into effect when the bill is signed into law, were spurred by record delays for the flying public this summer and major concerns that the Federal Aviation Administration’s announced Airspace Redesign for the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia area will increase aircraft noise while providing only minimal delay reductions.

Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) were joined by Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) on an amendment to ensure that the federal government’s independent investigatory arm will examine the effectiveness of a variety of approaches used nationwide to reduce flight delays. The Senators said that Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) report, which will be completed within 120 days of the bill being signed into law, will help determine if the Airspace Redesign plan will have a substantial effect on flight delays and whether other options used elsewhere will be more effective.

Meanwhile Senator Clinton was joined by Senators Schumer, Lautenberg and Menendez on an amendment that would require the Secretary of Transportation to report to Congress about how the FAA intends to reduce congestion and flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia airspace by next summer. The amendment, which was co-sponsored by Senators Dodd, Lieberman, Casey and Specter, would force the FAA to come up with a plan by next summer on how they will reduce these delays. The full implementation of the Airspace Redesign plan is not scheduled to be completed until 2011. In the meantime, the FAA must come up with a plan to address congestion and delays at area airports before the implementation of the Airspace Redesign project is complete.

“Air travelers have spent the summer stuck in airport terminals and on the tarmac. If there’s a way to more substantially reduce grueling flight delays while keeping the roaring noise of jets out of our neighborhoods, we need to know,” said Senator Menendez. “This will give us an independent, thorough assessment of flight delay reduction options so we can see if it has been done better in other areas. It’s pretty evident that the FAA’s current plan just isn’t going to fly with New Jersey residents.”

“The Bush Administration wants to sacrifice our quality of life by allowing more flights over our homes and while providing little, if any, relief to delayed travelers. That's the wrong approach,” said Senator Lautenberg. “Our measure will require a better study of how to improve flight delays in our region without causing excessive air noise.”

“The Airspace Redesign Project is a major undertaking and one that has the potential to impact so many New Yorkers, but it’s not a silver bullet in relieving the congestion in our airspace. This summer has been awful for commercial flyers when it comes to delays and the Administration must come up with a plan to address this problem as soon as possible. We must have a plan that helps clear the skies while addressing the very serious concerns about noise levels for communities on the ground,” Senator Clinton said. “We cannot wait ten to fifteen years for this resolved. We must clear up the delays at our airports, stop the terrifying near-misses on the ground and relieve the congestion, as well as reduce noise to surrounding communities and consider the very real impact on residents sooner rather than later.”

“Anyone who has taken a flight recently knows that the situation in America’s airports is appalling, and it’s only getting worse,” said Senator Schumer. “Our skies are gridlocked and the FAA has done next to nothing about it. While moves toward next generation technology are promising, we cannot wait another decade for the FAA to implement changes to address this crisis. This study will force the FAA to report on how they plan to address delays in the short term. The bottom line is that the FAA let conditions deteriorate to the point of chaos, and if the administration isn’t held accountable by Congress, I have little reason to believe that the situation will improve.”

Details of Menendez/Lautenberg/Clinton/Schumer amendment

Directs the GAO to conduct a study of the efficacy of various approaches used in the past by the FAA and the DOT to address delays at our nation's airports. Within 120 days of enactment, the GAO is to report which strategies have worked best to comprehensively reduce flight delays at an airport within 6 months or less. Specifically, the GAO is instructed to examine efforts by the FAA to induce voluntary schedule reductions at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the FAA's mandatory flight reduction operations at LaGuardia International Airport and Reagan National Airport, the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign and any other significant efforts by the FAA or the DOT to reduce flight delays at a major U.S. international airport.

Details of Clinton/Schumer/Lautenberg/Menendez amendment

Specifically, the amendment requires the Secretary of Transportation to submit to Congress a report detailing how the Federal Aviation Administration plans to alleviate air congestion and flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Airspace by August 31, 2008. The report would have to be submitted to no later than 120 days after the enactment of the legislation.

###

Source: US Senate

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •