3 ms·

So I read the article, but my immediate question was, "is 11 000 a lot?" There seems to be no reference to how many flights these 2 areas serve in a "normal day

So I read the article, but my immediate question was, "is 11 000 a lot?" There seems to be no reference to how many flights these 2 areas serve in a "normal day" so it's hard to know if 11000 is "all the flights" or "a drop in the bucket". Plus the period in question seems to be "the summer", which seems to be "May to September". So 5 months? NYC = JFK + LGA + EWR DCA = Washington Reagan JFK averages about 42000 flights per month for that period [1] EWR around 24000 flights per month. [2] LGA - Google says around 5000 flights per month DCA - around 25000 flights per month. [3] so that's 96k per month, or 480k for "the summer". So 11000 flights is around 2.3% reduction. I'm no aviation expert, but this seems like "normal variation" to me. Linking this to ATC Staff Shortages seems like a bit of a stretch. (I mean sure.... if we need 3% more ATC staff....) As a percentage of "all US flights" of course it's microscopic. So 11 000 - is it a lot? Well I guess that depends on whether you're a headline writer or not. [1] (https://jfkairport.net/statistics/ https://jfkairport.net/statistics/) [2] https://ewrairport.net/statistics/ https://ewrairport.net/statistics/ [3] https://www.mwaa.com/financial-statistics/reagan-air-traffic-statistics/2022-reagan-air-traffic-statistics https://www.mwaa.com/financial-statistics/reagan-air-traffic...

walterbell 4y ago
Linking this to ATC Staff Shortages seems like a bit of a stretch https://www.fox5ny.com/news/air-traffic-controller-shortage-faa-nyc-flights-cut-summer-2023 https://www.fox5ny.com/news/air-traffic-controller-shortage-... > According to the FAA, the air traffic control center in New York is staffed at 54% compared to the national average of 81%. The agency is asking all major airlines ... to cut service to all New York City area airports by as much as 10% for the summer months. "This is another unprecedented situation," Pauline Frommer, editorial director for Frommer's guide book, said. "We've never seen the FAA asking the airlines to cut flights because they simply don't have enough air traffic controllers"
- bruce511 4y ago
  >all major airlines Delta, Jet Blue, United, and American Airlines to cut service to all New York City area airports by as much as 10% This pretty much excludes most international flights, and also regional flights. From my walk through the stats quite a bit of traffic is regional, and I'd expect some hefty proportion of flights into JFK at the very least is international. Plus of course the "minor" airlines servicing the same location. So 10% from this select group of airlines, is not out of line with an overall reduction of 2.5%. (and of course "asking" is not necessarily "getting" :)
georgeplusplus 4y ago
I think the better question is 11,000 Flights is how much revenue lost? Airlines are a cut throat business when it comes to operating margins. So while to you it might not sound statistically significant to you but there are likely other reasons why it is a big deal. Also, just thinking it through, how does it look for the heart of the countries financial center to be reducing flights. There certainly is a ripple effect to all businesses with a reduction of flights.
- bruce511 4y ago
  It's always hard to estimate revenue lost. yes, some proportion of visitors might be impacted (as in "I can't come, I can't get a flight") but more likely people will just fly on another available plane, so (for the airline) seat usage goes up. In other words if most planes are at say 85% capacity, then that 10% is easily absorbed. If anything it likely makes the airline more profitable. and of course if it does get up to 100% utilization, then fares go up anyway. If anything the impact on the airline is positive, the impact on Joe Traveller might be negative (reduced schedule options ; possibly more expensive).

walterbell 4y ago

Linking this to ATC Staff Shortages seems like a bit of a stretch https://www.fox5ny.com/news/air-traffic-controller-shortage-faa-nyc-flights-cut-summer-2023 https://www.fox5ny.com/news/air-traffic-controller-shortage-... > According to the FAA, the air traffic control center in New York is staffed at 54% compared to the national average of 81%. The agency is asking all major airlines ... to cut service to all New York City area airports by as much as 10% for the summer months. "This is another unprecedented situation," Pauline Frommer, editorial director for Frommer's guide book, said. "We've never seen the FAA asking the airlines to cut flights because they simply don't have enough air traffic controllers"

bruce511 4y ago
>all major airlines Delta, Jet Blue, United, and American Airlines to cut service to all New York City area airports by as much as 10% This pretty much excludes most international flights, and also regional flights. From my walk through the stats quite a bit of traffic is regional, and I'd expect some hefty proportion of flights into JFK at the very least is international. Plus of course the "minor" airlines servicing the same location. So 10% from this select group of airlines, is not out of line with an overall reduction of 2.5%. (and of course "asking" is not necessarily "getting" :)

georgeplusplus 4y ago

I think the better question is 11,000 Flights is how much revenue lost? Airlines are a cut throat business when it comes to operating margins. So while to you it might not sound statistically significant to you but there are likely other reasons why it is a big deal. Also, just thinking it through, how does it look for the heart of the countries financial center to be reducing flights. There certainly is a ripple effect to all businesses with a reduction of flights.

bruce511 4y ago
It's always hard to estimate revenue lost. yes, some proportion of visitors might be impacted (as in "I can't come, I can't get a flight") but more likely people will just fly on another available plane, so (for the airline) seat usage goes up. In other words if most planes are at say 85% capacity, then that 10% is easily absorbed. If anything it likely makes the airline more profitable. and of course if it does get up to 100% utilization, then fares go up anyway. If anything the impact on the airline is positive, the impact on Joe Traveller might be negative (reduced schedule options ; possibly more expensive).