Most everyone expected that the FAA would have to step in to start solving the impending crisis in New York because airlines can not work on it together (as that would violate antitrust) nor individually (as that could impact competitiveness). But Delta today announced severe unilateral measures.
As part of its plan to address congestion and delays at JFK, Delta will make the following changes before summer 2008:
* Metering its use of airport resources by reducing average hourly departures by 6 percent during the most congested hours;
* Decreasing departures during JFK’s afternoon ‘rush hour’ by shifting short-haul trans-Atlantic flights to a third bank of international departures after 7 p.m.;
* Optimizing connecting times to increase transit time for JFK customers to enhance overall baggage performance and schedule reliability;
* Increasing the number of Delta flights operated with larger two-class jets. Of the 204 daily departures at JFK planned for 2008, 65 percent will be operated with larger two-class aircraft seating between 70 and 270 passengers – up from 43 percent in summer 2007; and
* Eliminating all Delta flights at JFK operated with turboprop aircraft.
Together, these changes will reduce Delta’s demands on limited airspace and airport resources until a comprehensive redesign of the New York airspace is funded by the federal government. Delta’s redesign will offer a more than 20 percent increase in available seat miles by summer 2008, with only 11 more daily departures.
Delta combined this important information in a single press release (with the new international routes) but I'm repeating it here because it is really a separate but related subject.
Delta Air Lines Builds on Successful Expansion at New York-JFK with 14 New International Routes
This whole topic has now become even more interesting.