Updated March 31, 2015
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) significantly reducing unscheduled slot allocations at Newark, Kennedy and La Guardia Airports.
The business aviation community, along with a great diversity of other unscheduled operations, rely on unscheduled slot allocations to access these three New York and New Jersey airports. Reducing unscheduled access will have a significant negative impact on not only on business aviation users, but also on the Fixed Base Operators (FBO) that service unscheduled operations at these airports.
Major Provisions
Currently, only La Guardia Airport (LGA) imposes slot limitations for unscheduled operations. The FAA allocates three slots per hour for unscheduled operations between 0600 and 2159. Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) do not impose any slot limitations on unscheduled operations.
The FAA proposes to reduced unscheduled operations at EWR to 1 slot per hour, at JFK to 2 slots per hour and retain 3 slots per hour at LGA. A wide variety of operations utilize unscheduled slots including sports team charters, vacation charters, business aviation, emergency organ transports, humanitarian flights and others. Additionally, weather, runway configurations and airport services can make EWR, JFK and LGA the ideal airport for an unscheduled operations to depart or arrive.
The FAA suggests that unscheduled operations should utilize other airports in the New York and New Jersey area if slots are not available at EWR, JFK and LGA.
NBAA’s Analysis
This proposal significantly threatens business aviation’s ability to access critical airport infrastructure in New York and New Jersey. The FAA’s evaluation of the impact of this proposal on the business aviation community fails to account for the realities of air traffic operations that can make access to other airports difficult. The evaluation is also silent on the significant financial impact this proposal will have on the FBOs located at the three airports that service unscheduled operations.
Unscheduled operations at EWR, JFK and LGA have never been cited as contributing to congestion related delays. Yet the FAA’s proposal applies the most significant reduction to slots for unscheduled operations.
Member Action
NBAA encourages Members to submit comments to the public docket opposing FAA’s proposal by May 8, 2015. Members should review their use of New York and New Jersey area airports and determine how the new slot limitations would affect their operations.
Download the NPRM Docket Number FAA–2014–1073 (PDF)
Submit comments to Docket Number FAA–2014–1073
For more information, contact NBAA’s Doug Carr at dcarr@nbaa.org.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.