Aviation Conspiracy: Senators Getting Involved With Stopping Airspace Redesign Scheme!!!

Aviation Conspiracy Newsletter
#460........................................................................December
23, 2007 Past newsletters can be accessed at:
http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/ACNewsmenu.htm The PASSUR airport flight
tracking system at many major U.S. airports http://www.passur.com/sites.htm
(you must have Java installed to view it). If you want to get the newsletter
sent to you every week, sign up to AviationWatch. Bill Mulcahy
rockaway@prodigy.net

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Quote of the Week: "In my meeting with acting Administrator (Robert)
Sturgell, I expressed my dissatisfaction over a number of issues involving
the FAA, including the rush to implement the airspace redesign," from a
story this week quoting New Jersey Senator Menendez

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Senators Getting Involved With Stopping Airspace Redesign Scheme!!!

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As Bill Sees It (Editorial): New Jersey's Senator Menendez Threatens To
Prevent FAA "Acting" Administrator From Getting Permanent Job!!! I see New
Jersey's senator Menendez and other politicians are calling for the FAA to
hold off on their airspace redesign plan until the General Accountability
Office issues their report in 2009. Menendez is threatening to hold off the
acting FAA administrator Robert Sturgell's appointment to be FAA
administrator!!! Menendez may lose his own job as he is in big trouble
because he was one of the ringleaders in supporting the extremely unpopular
Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill (AKA the Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill).
Menendez doesn't need a hundred thousand angry New Jerseyites blaming him
for allowing the FAA to dump more airport noise on them because of his
inaction on the airspace redesign scheme!!! Of course, other pro-aviation
expansion senators, like Hillary, Schumer, Lautenburg (who has "expressed
concerns" over the airspace plan), Lieberman, Spector and Dodd are mostly
keeping their mouths shut. No doubt they are hoping that that they won't be
blamed for the increased overflights next election.

JFK Flight "Caps" Will Increase Nighttime Noise Pollution!!! Stories this
week told about politician's concerns about increased fares and passenger
inconvenience due to flight cap plan, but few talked about how more planes
are going to be pushed into the "offpeak" hours (FAAspeak for late night and
early morning hours)!!! Not only that according to a N.Y. Times story
flights at JFK Airport are expected to increase the number of daily
flights!!! I only hope the people who they allegedly represent remember next
election who sold them out. I'm not surprised that New York senator Chuck
Schumer is upset that the DOT will put flight cap limits on JFK Airport
during their busiest times, after all he was the one that help get them
removed in the first place. That little stunt pleased the aviation industry
but inflicted increased noise pollution on Schumer's former congressional
district. But what did "Chuck" care; he was a senator and his past concerns
about noise pollution impacts, that he often expressed while a congressman,
were soon forgotten as he wheeled and dealed with the airline industry and
the FAA.

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DOT Orders Reduction In Flights At "Peak" Hours At New York's City Three
Main Airports: In the most sweeping effort to date to ease congestion at New
York's three major airports, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters
yesterday ordered a nearly 20 percent reduction of flights per hour during
peak times at Kennedy beginning in March. She also said an airspace "czar"
will be appointed to oversee efforts to reduce delays. Peters, after months
of deliberations and meetings with aviation officials and political figures,
said some kind of similar caps will ultimately go into effect at Newark
Liberty International Airport. Flight limitations are already in place at
LaGuardia. In a Washington news conference, Peters said the number of
flights per hour at Kennedy would be capped at either 82 or 83, depending on
time of day. Currently, there are about 100 flights per hour during peak
times at Kennedy. Peak hours are considered 7 to 9 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. The
caps are to begin March 15, and will remain in effect through 2008 and 2009.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/transportation/ny-bzjfk205508244dec20,0,1132625.story

Senators Worried About Flight Delays And Airport Congestion: December 19,
2007 -- Washington, DC - New Jersey and New York's U.S. Senators announced
today that the Senate has approved two measures they authored to reduce
flight delays and ease congestion in the New York/New Jersey airspace as
part of the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. One amendment
would require the federal government to provide a plan to Congress to reduce
flight delays in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania Region, the nation's
most densely congested airspace. The other amendment requires the
investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, to
investigate the Administration's Airspace Redesign Plan, as well as the
effectiveness of a variety of approaches used nationwide to reduce flight
delays. The Senators called for action after record airport delays this
summer and amid 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.
"We need real solutions to give travelers relief from the constant flight
delays and cancellations that plague our region," said Senator Lautenberg.
"Our aviation system is a mess and the Bush Administration's proposed fixes
continue to fall short. The Administration's plans would raise fares, create
more aircraft noise in more neighborhoods and could even worsen delays. Our
sensible legislation is a needed reality check to improve air travel in our
region and nationwide."
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48739765_ny-nj-senators-announce-senate-passage-legislation-reduce-flight-delays-new-yorknew-jersey-

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Important Aviation News
Stories This Week

U.S. to Cap Flights at Kennedy at Peak Times, but Its Daily Totals May
Increase

By MATTHEW L. WALD Published: December 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/nyregion/20kennedy.html?ref=business

HERNDON, Va. - Travelers going through Kennedy and Newark Liberty Airports
next summer may find somewhat fewer flights at the hours they most want to
travel, but are far more likely to leave on time or arrive in time to make
connections, federal transportation officials said on Wednesday.

And travelers may even find more flights over all, the officials said, as
they announced a combination of agreements and orders intended to eliminate
last summer's miserable delays.

At a briefing here at the Federal Aviation Administration's strategic
command center, the transportation secretary, Mary E. Peters, outlined the
results of weeks of negotiations with airlines that produced a painstakingly
pruned schedule at Kennedy International Airport.

Beginning in March, there will be a cap of 82 or 83 scheduled flights an
hour. Four unscheduled flights will also be allowed an hour; these could be
private or corporate aircraft, or airliners that are off schedule. The rules
will apply for two years.

In some hours last summer, there were 95 scheduled flights, officials said,
and more than 105 would have been scheduled next summer without this
agreement.

Ms. Peters said that the expected number of flights next summer would be
about 50 higher a day than the 1,187 on a peak day in the summer of 2007,
although spread more through the day.

Ms. Peters said the department would begin work immediately on a similar cap
at Newark Liberty International Airport to prevent extra traffic from
flowing there.

"Stopping the overload in peak hours will make for a significant,
significant reduction" in delays, she said, speaking against a backdrop of
floor-to-ceiling screens showing a live display of aircraft in flight across
the continental United States.

The major American airlines, with no immediate threat to the flights they
now operate, said they were pleased with the decision to spread flights
throughout the day, which could cut their costs by reducing delays.

Consumer advocates and elected officials gave the plan mixed reviews.

"As a short-term fix, this is a good first step," said Kate Hanni, who runs
the Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights. "It's going to
create an additional 40 to 60 flights a day. Under the current system, there
was no possibility that 22 flights were going to get out at 8 a.m. It was an
illusion, and the passengers were getting hurt."

Kevin Mitchell, the chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said,
"Spreading out the flights will by definition remove capacity from peak
period," leading to price increases. But if the airport ran with fewer
delays, he said, "it may be, on a net basis, worth it."

D. J. Gribben, the general counsel of the Transportation Department, said
travelers were already paying a premium because of unreliability. "If you
have an important meeting in New York, you fly in the night before, because
you can't count on the airports," he said. That means expenses for meals and
hotel rooms, he said.

According to a report earlier this month by the New York City comptroller's
office, delays at Kennedy have cost travelers nearly $200 million this year.

Ms. Peters said that new technology would continuously raise the capacity at
Kennedy, beginning as early as this spring, and that new slots created that
way would be auctioned to the highest bidder, which could be an airline
already operating at Kennedy, or one that wanted to add service. She
sidestepped the more contentious question of whether airlines now operating
at Kennedy would have slots taken away and put up for auction.

Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, who has predicted that
auctioning off slots would raise costs for airlines that would be passed
along to passengers, said the auction plan was a "harebrained scheme."

The International Air Transport Association said no airport conducted
auctions of slots to manage congestion. "A takeoff slot at J.F.K. requires
terminal space, a parking gate and a landing slot somewhere else," said
Giovanni Bisignani, the group's director general. "This is a complex
situation, and an eBay approach - slot auctions - will not solve the
problem."

At the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group founded by Ralph Nader in
1971, Paul Hudson, the executive director, said: "Capping the number of
flight operations to the capacity of the airport is certainly worth trying.
If you have more than the number that's physically possible, automatic
delays get built in."

Ken Belson contributed reporting from New York.