A battle between airlines, passengers, businesses and the FAA is brewing. The Federal Aviation Administration is looking into capping the number of flights per hour at John F. Kennedy International Airport to just 80 flights an hour.
Even during optimal conditions 80 flights is all that the current air traffic control system can handle. The way that many airlines flying in and out of JFK schedule their flights, the number of planes requesting to take off can reach over 100 per hour.
After the threat and it could still be put into place by the FAA, both Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways have shifted some of their 4pm to 9pm (peak hour) flights.
“We want to participate in the short run with the FAA, even though we don’t think it will be efficient in the long run,” says Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson.
JetBlue, the largest carrier at JFK, will begin trimming their schedule and shifting some flights to Westchester County Airport by next year.
Delta Air Lines, who recently said they want to enter into the NYC market more so than already, has said they will eliminate all propeller flights and replace some smaller regional jets by next year.
The proposed cap to 80 flights an hour by the FAA is drawing some major criticism. The Governors of New Jersey and New York have sent the U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters a letter urging alternative measures be found to solve the delay problems in the metro area.
"If caps were put into place at Kennedy, Newark Airport would inevitably be flooded with excess flights pushed out of New York,” said the governors.
And the fear of flooding Newark with “excess” Kennedy flights is something that worries Houston based Continental Airlines which operates a hub at Newark. Continental operates nearly 51,000 seats out of Newark each day. The carrier has been shifting some of their regional services to Cleveland and replacing their smaller jets at Newark with larger jets to help alleviate the delays.
Continental CEO Larry Kellner met with Transportation Secretary Mary Peters on Wednesday to outline his views and concerns about the congestion problems that led the agency to call for fewer flights in and out of JFK.
But the shifting of flights from Kennedy to Newark would not happen over night. But Continental’s fears are not without merit. Newark is already known for its delays and further crowding the market with overflows from Kennedy just might cause more problems in the northeast than the cap was intending to solve.
Something has to be done. Circling for an hour waiting for a slot is not feasible. Flight caps at Chicago’s O’Hare have been in place for a while and both United and American have made the flight caps work.
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“We want to participate in the short run with the FAA, even though we don’t think it will be efficient in the long run,” says Delta Chief Executive Richard Anderson. 
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