Airline Organization Sues FAA to Stop Slot Auctions

Seems the airlines have had it with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) (Web site: www.faa.gov) attempts to auction off take-off and landing slots at New York’s three prime commercial airports. The Air Transport Association (ATA) (Web site: www.airlines.org) is suing the FAA in federal court. Specifically, ATA is challenging FAA’s assertion that those slots are agency property, and that they can therefore be disposed of or leased under the agency’s general property management authority.

FAA’s reason for moving to slot auctions: stifling air traffic congestion at Kennedy (JFK), Newark (EWR), and LaGuardia (LGA) airports. The government maintains auctioning off some slots is a market-based solution to the problem, one that will more rationally ration scarce runway and airspace.

In its Petition For Review, the Air Transport Association asserts that FAA’s contention that it owns airport slots, and can thus auction or dispose of them as it will, is a “baseless” legal theory. Confiscating and then auctioning off slots, contends ATA’s petition, “violates a number of other statutory and constitutional prohibitions and restrictions.”

So, what to do about NYC congestion? Airlines want the federal government to boost the capacity of the air traffic control system, something FAA maintains it has been trying to do for years.

Meanwhile, we at Cheapflights suggest that if you’re flying to, through, or from JFK, you pick a quiet time to do so. Early Saturday afternoons are super. Friday afternoons can be frightful.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler