Plan to Reroute Air Traffic Challenged
Posted on: Tuesday, 12 August 2008, 06:00 CDT
By Alan Levin
Some of the nation's wealthiest neighborhoods are mounting a fierce legal challenge to block a government plan to untangle air traffic responsible for 75% of flight delays across the USA.
Still smarting from record delays at New York City's airports, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says rerouting jets in New York and Philadelphia is the best hope for improvement. But the rerouting will mean more noise for some Connecticut, New York and New Jersey suburbs where many corporate CEOs live.
"The FAA needs to be brought under control," says Rudy Marconi, chairman of the Alliance for Sensible Airspace Planning and first selectman in Ridgefield, Conn., which has a median household income of $134,000. Even though flights will be 6,000 feet and higher over the town, Marconi says the noise will "without a doubt" ruin its quality of life.
The FAA wants to move flights headed south toward New York about 25 miles to the east over southern Connecticut, home to Greenwich, Stamford and Westport. Those wealthy towns have influence that far outstrips their population. Their residents are among top political donors, rivaling Beverly Hills and New York's Upper East Side, campaign-finance reports show.
Thirteen towns have sued to block the routes. Poorer communities, such as Elizabeth, N.J., where the FAA plans new jet routes, have also sued.
D.J. Gribbon, general counsel for the Department of Transportation, says the agency fought off legal attempts to delay the effort.
"This is the single biggest choke point in the national system," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautics professor John Hansman. Federal statistics show that 58% of New York's flight delays were caused by congestion, more than twice the national average.
After 10 years of study, the FAA last year approved its plan to untangle the routes flights follow in the New York and Philadelphia regions. The plan would cut delays 20%, save airlines $285 million a year in fuel and reduce average noise across the region, the FAA says. (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Source: USA TODAY
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