FAA RELEASES ORDER LIMITING SCHEDULED OPERATIONS AT JFK
June 5, 2014
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has designated John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) as an IATA level three fully coordinated airport, which means carriers are required to obtain takeoff and departure slots before operating to the facility. Notwithstanding this requirement the FAA on May 29, 2014 released a Notice of Limited Waiver of the Slot Usage Requirement at JFK due to construction at the airport during the winter 2014/2015 and summer 2015 scheduling seasons. The notice, which is necessary due to a temporary reduction in capacity at the airport caused by the construction, grants with conditions a limited waiver of the airport’s slot usage requirement and applies only to JFK slots for the period between March 1, 2015 and October 24, 2015.
The Notice is FAA’s attempt to reduce service at JFK through voluntary reductions in operations by carriers that currently operate to the airport. To obtain a waiver for a specific slot held, a carrier must temporarily return to the FAA slots that it will not operate during the waiver period. While the carrier will not be operating a particular slot during that timeframe, it will nevertheless retain historical precedence for the slot or slots at issue and will be able to reacquire rights to the slot for the next season. The temporary return of slots to the FAA will allow the agency to plan for days on which closures due to construction and resulting operational impacts occur.
The FAA does recognize that carriers may make adjustments in their schedules based on operational assessments that are currently underway and may also need additional time to finalize schedules and potential reductions beyond the regular winter 2014/2015 slot return deadline of August 15, 2014. Therefore, the FAA will allow an additional slot return date to allow for better planning and for discussions with the FAA on potential schedule and slot adjustments to avoid delays. For slots between March 1 and March 28, 2015, the temporary slot return deadline is December 15, 2014. For slots between March 29 and October 24, 2015, the temporary slot return deadline is January 15, 2015. FAA will discuss this issue in further detail at the upcoming IATA slots conference in Abu Dhabi and will reach out to affected carriers on an individual basis over the coming weeks.
Temporary slot returns should be submitted to the Slot Administrative Office by email at: 7-awa-slotadmin@faa.gov.
This Eckert Seamans Aviation Blog post is intended to keep readers current on matters affecting businesses and is not intended to be legal advice. If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr ( esahr@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco ( dderco@eckertseamans.com 202-659-6665).