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Anyone expecting an easy solution to the JFK capacity problem has not been paying attention as company after company condemned the FAA's proposed capacity limitations at the linchpin airport which mirrors capacity in the 1960s. Now the governors of New York and New Jersey have weighed in opposing the FAA proposal. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation blasted airlines for not doing more to resolve the problem.
While airlines are over-scheduling, they say they are meeting passenger demand. And, for their troubles they get the blame. But it is the combined mismanagement of the FAA and Congress that is at the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the passengers do not know it, even as the FAA works under a continuing budgetary resolution since Congress, once again, was not able to agree on how to fund the agency's budget.
How many years has the FAA said that delays in modernization will be made up in the out years? At least 20, if not more. And, it has always gotten a reprieve on pressures to perform given the recessions of both 1987 and the late 1990s and the year 2,000, the last time passengers and airlines howled over delays and congestion. Now, while demand is remaining strong, the economy is softening and may well slip into a recession, which would again likely derail growing pressure for FAA to speed up improvements in air traffic control technology. Regardless of whether or not the economy goes into a formal recession, it will be the passengers who pay - with congestion, delays and higher fares if the economy remains...