DOT Caps Hourly Flights At Newark Airport At 83

[Matt Molnar]

Dow Jones Newswires, via CNNMoney:

DOT Caps Hourly Flights At Newark Airport At 83 (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803101721DOWJONESDJONLINE000652_FORTUNE5.htm)

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- In an ongoing effort to reduce chronic delays in the nation's air travel, the Department of Transportation said Monday it will cap flights at Newark Liberty International Airport at 83 per hour during peak flying times.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said federal officials arrived at that number after negotiations with airlines and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark airport.

A flight cap at Newark follows a similar hourly cap that the DOT announced in January for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Those caps will take effect March 15. New York City's LaGuardia Airport has long operated under hourly flight caps. [Full Article (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803101721DOWJONESDJONLINE000652_FORTUNE5.htm)]

[Matt Molnar]

Dow Jones Newswires, via CNNMoney:

DOT Caps Hourly Flights At Newark Airport At 83 (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803101721DOWJONESDJONLINE000652_FORTUNE5.htm)

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- In an ongoing effort to reduce chronic delays in the nation's air travel, the Department of Transportation said Monday it will cap flights at Newark Liberty International Airport at 83 per hour during peak flying times.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said federal officials arrived at that number after negotiations with airlines and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark airport.

A flight cap at Newark follows a similar hourly cap that the DOT announced in January for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. Those caps will take effect March 15. New York City's LaGuardia Airport has long operated under hourly flight caps. [Full Article (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803101721DOWJONESDJONLINE000652_FORTUNE5.htm)]

[tsnamm]

I find it interesting that the article seems to believe that the only reason that EWR is getting capped is to prevent airlines from swamping the airport, due to the installation of caps at JFK. Since EWR is the most delayed airport of the 3 major metro airports, these caps are for EWR's current delay issues as well as preventing a rush of other carriers from making the situation worse there by trying to avoid caps at JFK. In the end of it both EWR and JFK have delay issues, not just JFK. Of course we all know that airspace issues are the real culprit at JFK. With 4 runways they should be able to handle MORE than 100 a/c movements per hour.

[Matt Molnar]

Yeah, it was a dumb article, I should have looked for a better one. The JFK and EWR caps were announced on the same day a month or two ago, they just hadn't determined a number for EWR at the time. This was not a reactive move.

[bonanzabucks]

All the other articles with this story are more or less the same. I checked them all.

As for the whole cap thing, it was another typically bone-headed move by the FAA/DOT. Why they chose to focus on JFK when EWR and LGA had far worse delays was just dumb. Capping isn't going to make any difference with the delays. LGA is capped and their delays are the worst in the nation. ORD too. So, caps don't work. Fixing the airspace and introducing better technology will alleviate delays. Capping will spread the delays throughout the day and they will be no different than before. JFK and EWR usually only peak at around 80-85 movements per hour anyways. How will things be different from last summer? They won't...

[pgengler]

Fixing the airspace and introducing better technology will alleviate delays.

Changing the airspace and new technology will only go so far, and while there's some impact they can have on delays (maybe cutting down on some time waiting on the ground for in-trail spacing on departures), the airports still have pretty firm limits on how many planes they can handle during any given hour, and the limiting factor is runways, not airspace.