After the vociferous objections to caps and slot auctions at JFK and Newark from airline organizations, American Airlines has announced a dramatic cut in their LaGuardia flights and called on the Transportation Department to limit flights at LaGuardia.
Faced with continuing air traffic control problems ranging from personnel to infrastructure and funding, the airlines seem to be beginning to buy into a temporary fix until the new air traffic systems are in place, just as suggested in an earlier post. Delays have been a long-term problem at LaGuardia and have a ripple effect throughout the airline system.
The new American Airlines approach was outlined in a release to American employees discussing the coming autumn reductions in flights.
The company also has decided to eliminate five AA flights and 37 American Eagle regional jet departures at LaGuardia Airport. In addition to the expected costs savings, these changes, coupled with appropriate government action, could allow the airport to operate with less congestion and improve customer experience. Dependability and delay issues that exist at LaGuardia prevent airlines from operating cost effectively from this destination, but more importantly, they have a huge impact on all the overall customer service and performance of all airlines with any flights connecting to LaGuardia.
During the last five years, delays at LaGuardia (on both departures and arrivals) caused by Air Traffic Control have increased 50 percent and now occur on one out of every four departures, averaging more than one hour. Likewise, inbound delays have increased by 55 percent and occur on four out of every 10 arrivals, on average, delaying arrivals by 60 minutes. In addition, cancellations caused by Air Traffic Control are up 52.9 percent.
American has called for the FAA and the Department of Transportation to reduce the number of operations allowed at LaGuardia by 20 percent – or approximately 15 operations per hour – to help mitigate the congestion that causes flight delays at the airport.
This is some of the clearest language to come from a major airline about the New York airspace problems and a clear admission that flight reductions are the first step in rectifying the situation.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
