Schumer wants FAA Chief to Get Ax for NY Delays...

[HelloNewman]

Everyone always whines about the weather. The technology is there to use reduced seperation so weather isn't as big of an issue. The FAA and airlines are simply too lazy to implement the technology and spend the required money.

Instead they lean on the weather excuse as a crutch when a lot of times there is no real weather problem. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a "weather" cancellation in chicago when there was absolutely no weather issue. Airlines lie about this all the time. It is about time the passengers stand up and expose airlines and the FAA for this fraud. Everyone knows there is weather. Yes the weather is uncontrollable but how you manage it is certainly not. The FAA and airlines simply choose to bury their head in the sand and scream la la la it's not our fault.

 

[WalterSobchak]

It is about time the passengers stand up and expose airlines...

Watch out, Newman...you might lose your fast track to that management gig you've always dreamed up.

 

[Bavarian Chef]

They had one for a while: Adm. Don Engen (USN Ret.), but he got the boot for standing up to Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole.

I met Hinton in Corpus way back in flight school. Old marine aviator.

 

[CA1900]

This is quite interesting to me. On the one hand, government is responsible for deregulation and letting anyone do anything, anytime and anywhere. On the other they can't really restrict New York too much or the people trying to make money can't (an airline point of view).

Deregulate it 100%, kill the EAS program, and let the free market dictate the result. No more bailouts, no more loan guarantees, no more propping up the weaker airline to help it "survive" when it can't. That, or re-regulate it 100%. This half-assed semi-regulation, partially-subsidized airline service is a ridiculous situation.

No 91 at LGA.

LGA doesn't belong to to the airlines, any more than the highways belong to the tractor-trailers. That the airlines oversaturated LGA is their problem, and their mess to clean up.

If PANYNJ wants to throw a heavy landing fee -- regardless of the size of the aircraft -- that would be a fair solution. Locking out Part 91 ops is not an option as long as that airport receives federal money.

Charge, say, $1000 per operation. That's only $6.67 a head on an all-coach A320, but $27.03 a head for a Dash-8-100/200. And on a part 91 op, the entity operating the plane pays the whole tab.

No seats under 70 at LGA (start somewhere). Incentives to use other airports if you can't build more runways.

The latter makes sense, and that goes along with a heavy usage charge that's independent of the airplane's size. A Falcon uses just as much airspace as a 737, as does an RJ. Charging the same landing fee for each airplane would kill some of the economic viability of these smaller aircraft, and will give an incentive to use a larger airplane, thus reducing congestion.

Make the convenience of going to LGA cost something, and make it unattractive as a hub airport. That will go a long way towards cutting the traffic flow.

 

[igneousy2]

User fees need to be updated. a BBJ flying from BOS to LGA takes up an equal ammount of airspace but pays 1/10th of the fees - which is money that could be used to upgrade the system.

According to Ms. Blakey, "an airliner flying from New York to Miami would pay about $2,015 in taxes, while a large private jet would pay just $236."