Solving the Air Traffic Crunch in NYC Metro Area

Much has been made of the air traffic woes in the New York City Metro region. Congestion at the three area airports, Newark Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia, is often the worst in the country and causes problems for the entire system if there are delays there as the problems cascade throughout the air traffic system.

This is an untenable situation. The Port Authority is going to be studying the problem to see what else can be done.

I've got a few thoughts on the matter and the solution can be found 55 miles north of New York City:


That's Newburgh's Stewart International Airport. It's currently underutilized and is close enough to the NYC Metro area that it could serve as a fourth major airport. The Port Authority thought as much when it decided to purchase the airport and incorporate it into the system. The airport is 55 miles north of New York City and is adjacent to two major Interstate highways - I87 (NYS Thruway) and I84. Rail service is nearby as well.

To expedite matters and improve the situation at the other airports, there are a couple possibilities that will likely need to be implemented over the course of several years. One option would be to shift all cargo flights to Stewart and improve intermodal access to Stewart. This would not only free up ground operations at the airports, but reduce flights in and out of the other airports that could be used by passenger airlines.

The other, more costly option, would be to vastly expand passenger service at Stewart and create a sister airport system. Link Newark Liberty and Stewart to each other with a high speed rail system that has a link to Midtown. Do the same with JFK and LaGuardia using the AirTrain system.

For the Stewart-Newark train to work, it would require expanding and upgrading the right of way. High speed service costs roughly $40 million per mile in Japan or $20 million in France to build, and even if the costs are higher here in the US, the savings in improved air traffic would offset the initial expense.

A high speed link would cut the time between the City and the airport significantly, and offer an alternative airport to those living in Westchester, Rockland, and Northern New Jersey. The high speed link could operate along much of the present Bergen/Main line of New Jersey transit in New Jersey and the Port Jervis line in New York. A line could be built in conjunction with the rebuilding of the Tappan Zee Bridge such that direct service to the airport would be possible from Midtown via the Hudson River line that is shared with Amtrak.

At the same time, the AirTrain, which runs between the LIRR station in Jamaica and JFK airport should be extended to run through to LaGuardia airport. Such service would reduce congestion along the Van Wyck Expressway and allow passengers and airlines to better manaage their flights to both airports.

The construction of both links would not be cheap, but the alternatives are already costly - billions in losses due to delays, congestion, and pollution from emissions due to traffic and congestion.

In the interim, the Port Authority is trying to reduce congestion on the ground as well. They've created a new parking lot at JFK to enable cars awaiting to pick up passengers to wait without having to circle the airport.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey wants to put an end to that cat-and-mouse game. Last Friday, it opened a new parking lot at Kennedy International Airport where drivers can wait free until they get a call to come pick up their passengers.

Cellphone parking lots, as they are known, are not original to New York: Airports in Seattle, San Diego and Chicago already have them. But given the volume of traffic at Kennedy during the peak summer months, and New York’s notoriously aggressive drivers, the waiting area could alleviate one of the airport’s biggest bottlenecks.

“Air travel can be a trying experience,” said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority, which owns and runs Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports. “The countless hours circling, not to mention with the price of fuel these days, it could wind up costing you a lot of time and money in wasted gas. And it’s not very eco-friendly either.”

The Port Authority has no plans to open similar lots at Newark and LaGuardia because there is no available space at those airports.

If my suggestions are put into action, the other airports would have space freed up that could be put to such use. Other improvements to be implemented by the Port Authority in the short term include:

Some of the improvements, which cost $34 million, were funded in the authority's 2007 budget, which was approved in December.

They include hiring 200 more airport employees tasked with answering passengers' questions; 5,000 more seats inside terminals at Newark Liberty International Airport and La Guardia; more flight information monitors; valet parking at John F. Kennedy International Airport; and a free lot for motorists waiting to pick up arriving passengers at JFK.