A US government plan to auction take-off and landing slots at New York airports has been met with almost universal disapproval at home and abroad. In a bid to reduce the long delays and cancellations that have plagued the crowded American aviation sector in recent years, Bush administration officials decided to go ahead with the plan, which they say will reduce congestion at three New York airports believed to be responsible for almost two thirds of all flight delays in the country.
But the plan was labelled illegal and "incredibly disappointing" by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The New York Port Authority, the body responsible for the city's transport infrastructure, said the plan would "increase ticket prices, reduce choices for passengers and provide no relief from delays or congestion". The authority is seeking an injunction in US federal courts to prevent the plan from being implemented.
In an open letter to President George W Bush, New York and New Jersey's senators were equally blunt. "This unlawful, untried and untested plan put forward by the USDOT [Department of Transportation] will have drastic consequences for the travellers and residents of New Jersey and New York," they said. The Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways flies daily to New York's JFK International Airport, one of the three airports where take-off and landing slots are planned to be auctioned. Dubai's Emirates airline flies to JFK twice each week and plans to switch to daily flights on delivery of its second Airbus A380 superjumbo jet on Oct 24.
As slots at JFK and other New York airports have never been previously auctioned, there is no clear guess as to the price airlines will pay for the rights. But whatever these fees are, they will be passed on directly to customers, the IATA said. "Substantially raising airline costs with an illegal scheme in the middle of a perfect storm of high oil prices and falling demand makes no sense," said Giovanni Bisignani, the director general and chief executive of IATA. "Consumers, airlines and airports, and local communities all stand to lose from today's decision."
Take-off and landing slots at major airports are typically allocated by a government or civilian body, with a fixed fee, usually on a per-passenger basis, attached to each slot. Airlines treat these slots as valued assets, often selling or swapping them with their rivals. At Heathrow Airport in London, slots in high demand times are regularly sold by their owners for upwards of US$10 million (Dh37m). Alitalia, the Italian national carrier that is on the brink of collapse, sold a single Heathrow slot for $40m in mid-2007. In June, Etihad paid Dh65m for the rights to four slots at Heathrow Airport for a five-year period.
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