Posted on 06/23/2010 5:45:37 AM PDT by Willie Green
Recently the Government Accountability Office released GAO-10-120, “National Airspace System: Regional Airport Planning Could Address Congestion If Plans Were Integrated with FAA and Airport Decision Making.”
For our region and Philadelphia International Airport, the study could be summarized as follows: “There is none,” planning that is. This study was prompted because the Federal Aviation Administration predicts that our national airspace systems are on track to become congested beyond their capacity.
The GAO was asked to evaluate regional airport planning in congested metropolitan areas like Philadelphia.
In 2009 Philadelphia International Airport registered 492,000 takeoffs and landings; this number is expected to increase to by over 735,000 by the year 2035.
Congestion is a serious problem. On the micro-level, passengers are inconvenienced by delays, but on a regional basis airports operate as a system and a flight delayed in Philadelphia affects a traveler in another part of the country. These delays impose economic costs on passengers, airlines, airports and the economy.
Congestion also has a negative impact on the environment. A flight that should be heading towards O’Hare is instead idling on the runway emitting fumes in Philadelphia because the system is not operating efficiently.
The long-term solution to this problem is not airport expansion. It is regional planning and integration of airport systems and regional integration of airports with other transportation systems (i.e. rail, mass transit, etc.).
The GAO report illustrates how this approach has worked in other cities and regions but has been ignored - worse yet rejected by Philadelphia. Instead, the city with the support of the FAA proposes to spend $5.2 billion to put dirt in the Delaware River to build an additional runway at Philadelphia International Airport.
Yes, $5 billion to build in the river while our region’s transportation is broken and desperately in need of investment and transformation. All experts agree the additional runway will only recount for part of the projected increase in air traffic.
Philadelphia is situated on 2,400 acres (Denver Airport is on 36,000 acres) and even with an additional runway it has a finite capacity.
There is a better way.
The FAA identified 14 airports that will experience significant capacity constraint by 2025. Within the 14, the GAO report identified several regions that have or will have significantly congested airports including Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco and, our own, Philadelphia.
The GAO also studied the regional airport planning in Boston. The Boston region was part of the study not because of a congestion problem, but because they have solved their congestion problem through successful regional airport planning.
Officials with Massport, the sponsor of Logan International Airport in Boston, and planning officials began to seek regional solutions in the 1990s after it was determined that Logan would be unable to accommodate growing demand. Regional airport planning included a series of “demand studies” and a Regional Airport System Plan that concentrated on finding and implementing a mix of solutions.
The plan identified improvements that could be made at Logan; the increased use of underutilized airports as well as the expanded use of other modes of travel, notably high-speed rail.
Our region has an opportunity to rely on both solutions. We have the infrastructure in place to expand our reliance on high-speed rail and ample, underused regional airports — Lehigh Valley, Wilmington, Willow Grove, and Atlantic City to name a few.
The regional airport planning in Boston was led by local airports and facilitated by the FAA’s regional office, which provided the necessary funding and took a lead role in “demand studies” and the regional system. Massport officials are quick to point out that the regional airports would have been reluctant to participate had the FAA not become involved.
Here, Philadelphia International Airport, which is owned and operated by the city of Philadelphia, has repeatedly rejected this approach. According to the GAO report, “Airport officials in Philadelphia told us that they do not want to support federal efforts, including regional airport planning, that could lead to losing or diverting flights from their airport to other airports in the region.”
This short-sighted thinking is unacceptable. We will not be a first-class regional economy without a first-class transportation system. Dumping $5.2 billion into the Delaware River is not the path to a first-class system. That money, or its equivalent, should go into linking our regional rail system and transforming our regional system of airports along the lines of the Boston model. To do otherwise will handicap our region for years to come.
We need to upgrade our high-speed rail instead.
It is much more fuel efficient than airline travel.
WILLIE one note
WILLIE one note
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