The biggest problem with replacing the Worldport was simply lack of space and, most importantly, money. You can’t just stop using a terminal, shut it down, and then build a new one on top of it. What do you do with your flights in the meantime? So that means creative solutions are required, and those creative solutions add cost. JetBlue got lucky in New York in that it took over TWA’s vacant terminal and rebuilt it, all while continuing to use its operation next door. But Delta didn’t have that luxury, so it has now kicked off a $1.2 billion project to change it’s presence at JFK, something that’s sorely needed. Here’s the plan on my handy-dandy map:

Right now, Delta uses Terminal 2 primarily for domestic and Terminal 3 for international operations. The airline also uses a couple gates in Terminal 4 as needed. Terminal 2 wasn’t designed with style in mind as Terminal 3 was, so it’s actually relatively functional. It needs a renovation but it can still handle an operation adequately. The big change there? Those makeshift regional jet gates they put together at the end of the terminal will disappear and the end jet bridges will go back into use as regular gates.

As for Terminal 3, well, it will be demolished completely. If you’ve ever flown out of that terminal, you will jump for joy at this project. It simply isn’t capable of handling an airline operation today. The layout is goofy and it doesn’t help that several animals have made their homes in that place. I swear I’m never surprised to see rats or birds over there, though it’s been awhile since I’ve been back. Maybe the Orkin man has done some work since then.

I imagine that most of the cost in this project will be in taking down Terminal 3. It’s probably a toxic waste dump. The EPA is probably looking to see if it should become a Superfund site. Maybe now we’ll discover that Jimmy Hoffa has been buried under there this whole time, finally putting those rumors to rest.

But those disappearing gates in Terminal 3 have to show up somewhere else. And that will be in Terminal 4. Terminal 4 is already a really nice terminal, but it needs to be expanded for Delta’s purposes. Both concourses will be extended. From what I understand, the A concourse will grow so that current airlines in the B concourse can be relocated, and the B concourse will grow so Delta can handle its operation there. Then a connector will be built between the B concourse and Terminal 2 and all will be right again in New York . . . in 5 years, that is. As for the existing airlines in the B concourse? Guess they’ll have to find a new home elsewhere.

I asked for a count on the net gain in gates but I haven’t received an answer yet. I imagine it will at least replace all the existing gates and possibly add more, and it’s zero. But, there will be four more gates that are international-capable, so it does give Delta more flexibility. At the very least, it will put gates in better places so that taxiing in and out becomes much easier. Oh, and the former Terminal 3 site? That’ll be a nice place for Delta to park all those planes in order to avoid getting fined under the 3 hour rule. Hooray!

Now for the bad news. This won’t happen overnight. (Duh.) Delta will move in to the new terminal in 2013. Terminal 3 will be demolished in 2015. So, it’ll be a couple more years of pain for Delta’s New York fliers, but at least there’s now a light at the end of the tunnel.

[You can see pictures at Delta.com]

[Update 8/13 @ 810a: I received a response from Delta that the A gate extension is not in the plan right now. The map has been udpated, as have net gate counts.]

Some of you may know that I write the monthly newsletters for PASSUR Aerospace. PASSUR is a very cool little company that actually has its own private radar network at over 100 airports, primarily in the US and Canada. There are a million things that they do with this data, but as I was putting together the current newsletter, I found out about a temporary but truly awesome project going on at JFK during the runway construction that’s happening today. They’ve effectively created virtual queues so that airplanes don’t have to push off the gate until it’s closer to actual departure time.

Here’s how it works. During peak periods (operational for ten hours a day), a central command coordinates all departures and arrivals at the airport. A couple hours before scheduled departure time, each flight is assigned an actual departure time by the system. So maybe your flight was supposed to leave at 1p, but at 11a, the airline will be advised that the departure time will now be 2p. That means they can keep you at the gate and let you roam free. If they need that gate for an arriving flight, they can still board you and then push you out of the gate, but you’ll have a very clear picture of when you will actually take off. Expectations can be set appropriately, and they shouldn’t push you off the gate if a 3 hour delay is anticipated.

The result of this is that at any one time you end up with no more than eight airplanes waiting to take off (you need some kind of buffer in there) instead of 30 or more. This is good for passengers, but it’s also good for airlines. When they’re in that long line waiting for takeoff, they have to keep an engine running, sucking up gas as they wait. Now that won’t be an issue. In addition, if the winds shift and the airport needs to turn around and use different runways, there are fewer planes that need to be turned around so it can be done more quickly.

Awesome, right? Now this isn’t a fail-proof solution. When bad weather rolls in, that messes a lot of things up. A version of this system is actually used during severe weather events now at JFK for metering departures, but it doesn’t solve everything. If you have a ton of planes coming in on diversions or several planes landing while others can’t take off, you may need to free up gate space due to storms. Things can and will still go wrong, but this process is a big improvement.

So how has this been working? Well, during March 2010, they were able to handle just about the same amount of traffic as they handled in March 2009 but with one runway down for construction. Taxi-out times are virtually the same. And the average delay has actually gone down by about 5 minutes. Great stuff.

Unfortunately, this program is currently scheduled to end on June 30, when the big construction work on the runway is done. With any luck, the airport will see the benefit and decide to keep it around . . . and then hopefully other delay-prone airports will consider it as well.

[Original Photos via AZ DOT and abdallahh]

American is the airline that dumped 757s into Long Beach when JetBlue started flying. This is also the airline that is known for doing everything it can to slay upstarts. Yet now, here they are skipping down 5th Avenue together. If the graphic above doesn’t make the entire thing clear for you, you can read about my take on this as part of American’s efforts to fight Delta in New York over on BNET today, but I want to focus on JetBlue here.

There are a couple of things happening. First, JetBlue and American signed an interline agreement, which means you’ll be able to book tickets via American or travel agents to travel on JetBlue from 18 domestic cities to either JFK or Boston where you’ll be able to transfer on American to one of 12 international destinations all on the same ticket. This isn’t a codeshare and it isn’t a frequent flier partnership, yet.

Second, JetBlue will give up 12 slot pairs at JFK in order to get 8 slot pairs at Washington/National and 1 at White Plains. Yeehaw. All this, combined with the fact that Lufthansa, part of American’s rival Star Alliance, owns a good chunk of JetBlue left my head spinning. So I turned to JetBlue and asked some question in a way that I wouldn’t ever dare trying with American.

Cranky: So this is just an interline agreement and it can only be booked via American right now? No bookings will occur via JetBlue? Isn’t that why you signed up for Sabre so you could do stuff like that?
JetBlue: Bookings can be made on AA.com, by calling American Airlines reservations, via Global Distribution Systems and Online Travel Agents or through a travel agent. JetBlue is currently unable to sell interline tickets seamlessly on our website. We intend to add interline functionality to our website later this year.

Cranky: Why have west coast cities been left out of the connections? In other words, why can’t I go from Long Beach? You know I love my home airport.
JetBlue: This is an agreement for non-overlapping markets served by JetBlue from JFK or Boston with well-timed schedules to connect to international destinations served by American. We will explore additional cities in the future, but these 18 domestic JetBlue and 12 international American cities are our launch cities.

Cranky: Is Lufthansa going to kill you? As a part owner, I assume this was discussed with them before the deal was implemented?
JetBlue: Lufthansa invested in JetBlue and we feel this agreement with AA will help us produce a valuable return on their investment.

Cranky: Does this have any impact on the 5 slots you’re trying to get at DCA from the US/DL deal or is this simply an additional part of your plan to make your move on DCA?
JetBlue: These slots are part of the agreement with American. They are separate from our plans to obtain slots through other means.

Cranky: If you’re giving up 12 slots at JFK, what flights will go away? Are those slots all during peak hours? Can you make sure the ones you give up are the ones that would otherwise have resulted in horrible 27 hour onboard aircraft delays?
JetBlue: The exact flights have not been determined. We are swapping valuable DCA slots for some of our extra JFK slots that were being underutilized. Even without these, we are still the #1 airline at JFK.

Cranky: When are you planning to start Washington/National service? Where are you flying from National? (I know you won’t answer this.)
JetBlue: We hope to begin flying to National in November. Precise start dates, routes and fares will be announced later this spring.

So there you have it. I think my questions were far more entertaining than the answers, but to be fair, the responses were typed on a BlackBerry. For what it’s worth, I also spoke with Lufthansa spokesperson Martin Riecken who said they did know about this before it was announced. I asked him if Lufthansa was unhappy about this. He said:

As a financial investor, anything that is good for JetBlue’s business is good for us. As a partner, this is just an interline agreement which is standard throughout the industry.

How very rational and, well, stereotypically German. That makes sense to me, but I imagine we’ll hear a different tune if this deal progresses any further.

For JetBlue, this seems to be a nice way to pick up a few extra international passengers, but it’s more about National than anything else. They’ll get 8 slots here and they still want those 5 if the US Airways/Delta slot swap goes through. They also said in their release today that they “petitioned the FAA for access to unused slot pairs in the early morning and late-evening hours.” Though they won’t tell me where they’re flying, my money is on Boston and Florida to start but possibly some JFK as well.

I think this is about as good of an example of strange bedfellows as I can remember. But it seems to make sense for both sides. If this does go any further, then it’s bound to cause some serious issues with Lufthansa. But maybe with its partner Continental in Newark, JetBlue isn’t as interesting to Lufthansa anymore. Hmmm.

Flying High: Southwest Airlines Posts Big February Gains – BNET
Southwest saw strong double digit revenue gains in February.

Flying Higher: United Airlines February Revenues Way Up – BNET
United beat Southwest’s numbers and showed that they’re really hitting their stride in the revenue game these days.

Fokker’s Back in the Airplane-Building Game – BNET
Those little Fokkers are looking to start building an updated version of the F70 and F100 planes that haven’t been built for more than a decade.

Massive Snow Means Less Airline Capacity in February – BNET
Feb traffic numbers are in, and what do they have in common? A lot fewer available seat miles.

Mexican’s Leading Low Fare Airline Now Owned by the Richest Man in the World – BNET
Carlos Slim is now the richest man, and he owns an airline, believe it or not.

For those who were hoping to see my CNN International piece on the looming BA strike, I’m sorry but it doesn’t seem to be online.

The runway being closed is 13R-31L. That’s the airport’s longest runway – almost 15,000 feet long – and you can see it in red at left. Why are they closing it? Well, the Port Authority finally realized that if they removed that curve in the runway, they could actually speed up traffic. Who knew? (File that one under “phun with photoshop”)

In reality, it just needs to be rebuilt. See, it was last re-done in 1993 and received some repairs in 2004. It’s beyond the expected life of an asphalt runway so they just can’t wait anymore.

This time, they’re going to do it right. They’re replacing the asphalt with longer-lasting concrete. They’re expanding it to be 200 feet wide instead of 150 feet, so it can handle the A380. They’re also going to fix up the taxiways around there to make them more efficient and to add more waiting room for airplanes (that’s not what you want to hear).

So it’s a good thing, but there’s one problem. It has to be done when airplanes want to use it. Of course, JFK never uses every runway at the same time, especially since three of them cross. But this particular runway is used very frequently, so it will mess things up.

What are the airlines doing about it? The good news is that they’ve agreed to keep flying their winter schedule until July 1 when they’ll ramp up to the busier summer flying. That should help. For example, last summer, JetBlue had 176-178 daily departures from JFK. This summer they’ll only have 162, but that won’t start until July. Until July, there will only be 153-154. Other airlines should have similar cuts.

This will also require some creative air traffic control work. They have other configurations that they use that don’t require runway 13R-31L, but the weather will determine if they can use those or not. The spring, fortunately, is a better weather time to do this than summer or winter, but it’s not perfect.

Airplanes like to take off and land into the wind. They need to be going a certain airspeed to get into the air, and when they fly into the wind, that means the groundspeed can be lower. Lower groundspeed means they need less runway. Hooray! Light tailwinds and moderate crosswinds are fine, but when they get worse than that, you have trouble.

Looking at this map, you can see that a strong Southeasterly wind would be the biggest problem here. If it gets strong enough, you would only be able to use the single 13L-31R. Uh oh. That shouldn’t happen too often, but when it does, run away screaming.

So, if you’re booking spring trips to New York, think about LaGuardia or Newark. (I never thought those would look like good options to avoid delays.) And if you’re looking at a trip connecting through JFK, think again. Avoid that place if you have a choice.

Meaningless Mishandled Bag Numbers Plunge in July – BNET
Bag mishandlings are down, but the strange method of calculating the number makes these numbers pretty useless.

The Longest Delays Are In the Northeast – BNET
This is no surprise, but for those wanting a passenger bill of rights, I have a better idea.

Midwest Starts Milwaukee – St Louis on American’s Turf – BNET
Before American announced its St Louis pulldown, I wondered about this move. Now with hindsight, it makes sense.

Update: American Eliminates St Louis Hub – BNET
Just a quick update on my previous post.

American Raises $1.3 Billion in Cash – BNET
It wasn’t just route announcements that had American making news. They also raised a bunch of cash.

• Delta’s LAX Hub – Looks like Delta is pulling down some LAX flying. Just after the new year, nonstops to Columbus, Jacksonville, Raleigh/Durham and more disappear. Sure, some of them seem to come back in a few months, but I wouldn’t put money down on that staying put. Interesting that Skybus flies from Columbus and Greensboro to the LA Area. I’m not convinced these are connected, but it could very well be the straw that broke the camel’s back. More likely, Delta’s realizing that LAX isn’t working for them as well as they’d hoped.




• United’s Intra-LA Basin Flying – There’s nothing more fun for an airline/LA dork than flying from Ontario or Orange County to LAX. I’ve flown the latter, and it’s a great ride. You depart Orange County to the south and then make a big backwards “S” before landing at LAX shortly after departing. Sadly, those days are numbered as both routes get the axe from United. Those little Brasilias are going to be phased out, and these short hauls had to get the axe first, especially with fuel prices where they are.




• Icelandair’s Home in North America – Icelandair may still have their US headquarters outside of Baltimore for now, but as of early January, they will no longer actually FLY to Baltimore. In my college days, my friends and I took a far-too-cheap Spring Break trip from BWI to Glasgow for 3 nights and then Reykjavik for three nights. Why was it cheap? Um. Iceland in March? Exactly. The flights were great, but the hostel that doubled as a homeless shelter left much to be desired. BWI will miss you, Icelandair.




• MAXjet – We knew MAXjet was losing a bunch of money, but the recent request to have shares suspended from trading made the situation seem much more dire. Mark over at Upgrade: Travel Better has good coverage of this. Hopefully they’ll keep going . . . I haven’t had a chance to try them yet.




• Emirates Across the Pond – Those Dubai runs may be working well for Emirates (check out Towers and Tarmacs’ coverage of the Houston inaugural), but apparently that one run from New York that goes through Hamburg is getting killed. Don’t worry. The few of you who want to go from New York to Hamburg can still fly from Newark on Continental.

See, lots of doom and gloom. Let’s try to end on a happier note. Delta put out their latest in their Planeguage video series, and this is a great one. Every time I get an empty middle on a full flight, it does seem like divine intervention. Though sadly, the first question I had after watching this video was, “How did they get all those wrapped presents past the TSA?!” Enjoy.

1. Eliminate corporate jets from LaGuardia – How many corporate jet flights are there from LGA every day? It can’t be that many. And where else would they go on the east side of the East River?
2. Do not permit “Non-Standard” departures from LaGuardia – This is a very rare occurrence. According to a New York air traffic expert friend of mine, this would have very little impact.
3. Eliminate all published connections at LGA – Why? He says it only accounts for 5% of the traffic at the airport. I can’t imagine that eliminating connections would do anything to relieve air traffic congestion. It would just reduce the number of passengers and not the number of flights. That isn’t the problem.
4. Eliminate the perimeter rule prohibiting flights over 1,500 miles – Huh? Again, this does nothing to reduce air traffic congestion. It just reallocates capacity to different areas. There will still be too many airplanes for the current system set up.
5. Change the definition of a “delay” from not just being 15 minutes – Again, huh? This doesn’t fix congestion. This just tries to convince people that they aren’t delayed. Wow.

That’s a heck of a list that leaves more questions than answers. After I finished reading this morning, I shot an email over to David Stempler, the man who appears to be the entire organization, asking many of the questions I posted above. I said that I was planning on writing this morning, so I asked to hear back by last night. I did not.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect such quick turnaround for a little blog like mine, but if you’re going to put out a press release and you want it to get coverage, I would think you would at least write back asking for more time to make sure you have a say in what happens. Hopefully I’ll hear back from him and can post updates here, but for now, I’ll just hope that someone reading can help fill in the blanks for me. What am I missing?

My biggest question is about who he is trying to support here. In his release, he says, “The Air Travelers Association is the airline passenger/consumer representative on the U.S. DOT’s New York Aviation Rulemaking Committee . . . .” He is clearly connected to someone if he made it on this committee, but as many others have asked, is he really supporting passengers?

Much of this proposal does not seem to address any of the issues passengers face today. Let’s say this does open up a little more space at the already saturated LaGuardia. Is that really going fix the New York area congestion issues? I think not. Flights will fill those holes very quickly. I’m just still trying to figure out the motivation here.

A quick Google search brought up a post from Chris Elliot with links to all sorts of sites that raise questions about the legitimacy of this organization. Hmm. Very questionable.