Low-Cost Carriers Lobby to Keep Access to Major Airports

A group of low-cost, low-fare and charter airlines are urging the Department of Transportation (DOT) to preserve their competitive access to vital congested airports in the U.S., including New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK).

The DOT heard from a number of the smaller airlines at one of the final meetings of an advisory group formed to help formulate recommendations for Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to send to President Bush, who has asked for final proposals by mid-December, before the holidays. The first schedule reductions at JFK are expected by summer 2008.

Low-cost carriers say that trade associations representing large, major airlines urged DOT to adopt a system of capping flights, freezing historic operations, and shutting out new entrants, forcing smaller airlines to not only pay for rights the incumbent carriers got for free, but to rely on the incumbent competitors to sell slots to them.

“We’ve got to find a solution to airport delays that doesn’t shut out smaller airlines, which in many cases are offering premium service at lower fares,” said former Secretary of Transportation Samuel Skinner, vice chairman of Virgin America, who pressed his case with the administration.

The coalition of airlines fighting to preserve access to congested airports was joined by the Air Carrier Association of America (ACAA) and the National Air Carrier Association (NACA).