Mr. Elliott

I am not a lawyer and I don’t know the exact terms of the leases for LGA and JFK, but New York City owns the land the airports are built on. I would assume that the Port Authority owns the buildings and infrastructure until the lease expires and then the property reverts to NYC.

New York City only gets a small amount of money for the rental of the land, NYC does not share in any revenues and about the only money NYC earns from these airports are from the sales taxes collected from the concessionaires. LAX is owned and operated by by a City of Los Angeles agency and therefore makes money on LAX.

A small airline served airport 25 miles east of LGA, in Westchester County New York, White Plains airport is owned and operated by the county and is a cash cow for the county, the county earns millions a year from HPN and this is one of the main reasons the county will not shut down the airport despite all the NIMBY protests

Because the Port Authority is a state agency, New York City has no control over the Port Authority, they basically do whatever they want. In the 1960’s the PA took over property in lower Manhattan by eminent domain and built the World trade Center and did not have to comply with any NYC zoning laws, they even did not have to comply with NYC building codes, the WTC was built to less stricter state building codes. In NYC the PA owns all the property on the New York side for the bridges and tunnels and also both bus terminals located in Manhattan and again NYC does not get any share of the revenues these facilities generate.

This is why former Mayor Rudi Giuliani hated the Port Authority, he claimed the PA has totally screwed NYC out of any revenues, especially from the airports, and he is right. He tried to terminate the airport leases but was unable to do so and he hoped that when the leases were up around 2017, whoever was mayor would not renew the leases and NYC would then be able to operate LGA and JFK, but Mayor Bloomberg extended the leases for about another 20 or more years

The PA goes as far as putting up small signs on the roads entering airport property where both the NYPD and the FDNY if needed have to hold and be escorted onto the property. While the airports have their own fire department, they are geared for airplane crashes, not building or structure fires, that would be handled by the NYC Fire Department, but the FDNY cannot go past the hold signs until escorted onto the property by the PA.

About the only function the PA does not have is judicial authority, they have their own police departments but have to follow the laws of the city and the state in these matters. I am sure if they could, they would have their own court system as well.

Everyone in the area hates the PA, they are in financial difficulties resulting from losses incurred on 9-11 and last year they raised all the tolls on the bridges and tunnels entering New York City, the tolls are only collected one way, eastbound to $12.00 cash or $8.00 with an EZ-Pass to raise revenues to help pay off the redevelopment of the WTC site. The PA initially wanted to raise the cash tolls to $15.00 and EZ-Pass to $10.00, but were turned down by the NY Governor.

The Port Authority is the sole reason that all their airports always rank the lowest on travelers surveys, basically they are all dumps.



I agree. They are public property. SWF used to be a private airport, but no longer is. There is only one private airport at which the TSA operates and it didn't open that long ago.

Look at who runs PANYNJ (and note that its website is a .gov)



Just to clarify, Stewart Airport (SWF) was formally Stewart Air Force Base and when the Air Force decommissioned it, it was turned over to New York State, NYS hired a few private operators over the years to run the airport, none of which was able to earn a profit, so NYS turned operations of SWF over to the PA to run the airport. What helps SWF is there is 2 military squadrons, a large NY Air National Guard unit flying C-5's and a Marine Corps aviation unit flying C-130's based on the airport, so there is military money helping out to support the airport, which also means the PA has no control over those facilities.

Mr. Elliott

nrr

Suppressing picture taking on public property is counter how a "free" society should be run. (1)Taking pictures in the (NYC) subways has been on again off again prohibited. (2)I remember seeing a sign on the Brooklyn Bridge footpath over 30 years ago, stating that you had to go to some office to get a permit--I think that rule goes back to WWII. (3)Some 7 or 8 years after 9-11, Mayor Giuliani defended a ban on photographing the 9-11 site, since it was a "crime scene", the list can go on and on.
Since super telephoto lenses exist (1000 mm or more), one can easily photograph planes from well off airport property--so why is there a problem with photographing planes from on airport property (the plane doesn't change based on where it was photographed).

16A

I'm going to put on my Mr. Passive Resistance hat and propose that we set up travel photography thread for EWR/PANYNJ airports. Anyone else in? We could set up a thread and do some (discreet) plane spotting to show the stupidity of the whole thing and exercise our rights. I've got a sort of OK camera phone shot of Alitalia's evening A330 service from EWR to FCO after pushback to start it off....

I'm guessing it would need to be in Travel Photography, but if anyone has any suggestions let me know.

marklyon

I'm happy to come photograph at JFK/LGA.

Pesky Monkey

No need, there are hundreds of thousands of photos of aircraft at airports on Flickr (only one of many sites), including the above mentioned airports.

16A

True enough - which just makes the "prohibited/discouraged" rule even more stupid. But frankly that's what anyone in this neck of the woods has come to expect from the PA. They're nothing but a giant middle finger to anyone that has to pass through a 25 mile radius of NYC.

Wally Bird

Coincidentally someone just posted photos taken from inside JFK:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18956642-post834.html

Guess PANYNJ was on a donut break

DillMan

Is that your PC-12 in your album? yum.