Size matters.
At least it does
to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is advocating
punishing airlines for flying too many small aircraft into New
York's LaGuardia Airport. If adopted, a plan would require that
aircraft flying in and out of LaGuardia average from seven to 34
more seats than the current average, beginning in 2008.
The FAA also said
it planned to ask Congress to approve legislation that would make
it far easier for LaGuardia to introduce congestion-based pricing,
under which airlines would pay more for landing at the airport's
busiest times.
Both proposals
are aimed at reducing congestion by creating incentives for
airlines to operate larger aircraft that carry more passengers.
LaGuardia can't handle more airplanes, but it can handle more
passengers, the FAA said.
Separately, the
FAA is addressing congestion-related delays at Chicago's O'Hare by
temporarily extending a cap of 88 on the number of U.S. and
Canadian flights arriving during peak hours. The cap would be
reviewed every six months and would be removed by Oct. 31, 2008, by
which time O'Hare expects to open a new runway.
O'Hare's ability
to expand is why no aircraft size requirement is necessary there,
the FAA said.
Size policy is controversial
The FAA is also
proposing to extend its existing cap on the number of flights per
hour at LaGuardia during it busiest hours to 75, with some
exceptions, until a permanent solution can be found.
The FAA said it
would ask Congress for legislation that would let LaGuardia
"auction" airport usage times to airlines as a way to allocate
capacity. It is the aircraft size proposal, however, that seems
likely to generate the most controversy, since the trend in
commercial aviation has been to use more smaller planes on domestic
routes.
Many large
network carriers have been operating smaller aircraft either to
"right-size" planes to match demand levels, to create additional
frequencies for business travelers or to shift a bigger portion of
operations to international flights.
The FAA says that
this preference for smaller aircraft has been creating problems,
particularly for airports like LaGuardia that have no room to
expand.
Promoting larger aircraft
The use of
aircraft with fewer than 71 seats to serve LaGuardia from medium
and large hub airports has increased by more than 50% since August
2001, the FAA said. As of April 2005, that included 16 flights to
Baltimore on aircraft averaging 38 seats, 44 to Raleigh-Durham
averaging 50 seats and 20 to Philadelphia averaging 58
seats.
"Promoting larger
aircraft is the only means to increase passenger access to
LaGuardia," the FAA said in an Aug. 29 Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking.
To accomplish
this, absent congestion-based pricing or auctions, the FAA is
proposing a preferred average aircraft size at LaGuardia ranging
from 105 to 122 seats, depending on whether an FAA proposal to
exempt service to non-hub and small hub airports is also
adopted.
Aircraft now
operating at LaGuardia average 98 seats. The 105- to 122-seat
proposal was based on a target of 28.5 million passengers a year
and assumes a cap of 75 flight operations per hour.
Under the
proposal, airlines would report on Jan. 1, 2009, the average size
of aircraft used at the airport in 2008. If the average exceeded
the target, the airline would lose as many operating
authorizations, or slots -- the right to operate one take-off or
landing -- as necessary to bring its average below the target. Each
carrier would be granted a "baseline" of up to 10 slots per day
that would not be subject to the new size requirements.
The FAA said a
2009 launch would give airlines enough time to adjust their
LaGuardia operations.
The FAA is making
its proposals now because caps on flights to LaGuardia are
scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
The public has
until Oct. 30 to file comments on the FAA's Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking for LaGuardia (docket number FAA-2006-25709). The
Transportation Dept. docket Web site at http://dms.dot.gov
provides instructions for filing comments
electronically.
To contact reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].