FAA Auction Plan Denounced

New York's two U.S. Senators, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, joined with their colleagues from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez, in roundly denouncing a decision by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT) to proceed with a plan to auction off arrival and departure slots at the three New York metropolitan area airports. The announcement followed a declaration from the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the Air Transport Association on Thursday, October 9 that the two organizations would go to court to block the DOT's decision. The Port Authority said it would seek an injunction next week from the U. S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., to block the DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration. The ATA, an airline industry trade group, also said that it will seek a court order by the end of this week to delay the DOT's plan to auction off the first group of slots. The slots are scheduled to be sold on January 12, despite a legal finding by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that such a move would be illegal.

The four Senators have opposed the auction plan, describing it as counterproductive and potentially extremely costly to consumers. The federal plan calls for auctioning off over the next five years up to 10 percent of the landing and takeoff slots that airlines currently operate free of charge. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said the new rules also will lower the hourly operating cap at LaGuardia from 75 slots per hour to 71 slots per hour by "retiring" an additional 5 percent of the slots currently being used, cutting delays by an estimated 40 percent..

"The USDOT's plan neglects entirely the regional planning undertaken by the bi-state Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, one of the world's largest transportation agencies," the four Senators said in a letter to President George W. Bush, that underscored their opposition to the plan and urged the administration to reverse course. "This agency has a long history of hands-on operations of four of the busiest airports in the entire country. Its coordinated planning processes reflect the local needs of our state and region and its management and experience should be embraced by the FAA, not dismissed. We are disappointed that instead of working with the Port Authority, the DOT has instead chosen to force clearly unwanted actions - such as this slot auction - onto our local airports, in what appears to be an economic experiment pushed by ideologues within [the Bush] Administration.

"In light of these concerns, we ask that you immediately direct your Secretary of Transportation to cease any and all actions to implement an auction system at New York/New Jersey airports. We request that you direct the Secretary to work with the Port Authority and other stakeholders to implement policies that will reduce flight delays and not unnecessarily raise airfares for travelers in our region."

"We're strongly opposed to the auction," Port Authority Director of Aviation Bill DeCota said. "Despite this alleged process of taking broad public input, the DOT and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continue to ignore all the concerns expressed by us and the people who have joined us. They've taken action that we don't believe will do anything to reduce congestion."

"This will be a tragedy for the people who live close to these airports," United Community Civic Association President Rose Marie Poveromo declared. Poveromo's organization has opposed slot expansion and sought greater air and noise pollution controls. "It's an abuse of power by the FAA and the DOT. [The FAA and DOT officials] don't live in these communities, so how can they make these decisions? They ignore our cries for help. How can they make these decisions without public hearings?"

Rather than auction off the slots, the Senators called on the FAA to modernize its equipment, staff control towers adequately, and increase airport capacity by expediting new technology. In 2007 they saw two measures to reduce flight delays and ease congestion in New York/New Jersey airspace become law. One provision required the federal government to provide a plan to Congress to reduce flight delays in the region, the nation's most densely congested airspace. The other measure required the GAO to investigate the FAA's Airspace Redesign Plan, as well as the effectiveness of a variety of approaches used nationwide to reduce flight delays, including the auction plan.