Congressman Vows To Fight Removal
Long Island's MacArthur Airport (ISP) will soon lose its
computerized departure system to Morristown Municipal Airport in
New Jersey... a move strongly protested by air traffic controllers
and elected officials, who say the decision will lead to flight
delays.
Representative Steve Israel (D-Huntington) vowed to "reorient
the FAA's budget" if necessary to stop its officials from
relocating critical air traffic control equipment.
He is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, and is a
frequent user of the airport.
Israel held a news conference Friday outside the airport control
tower, along with Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southhampton), a member of the
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, reports
Newsday.
"I don't intend to take no for an answer," said Israel. "I am
interested in the FAA deciding not to move the equipment. Anything
less will ensure a strong response - legislatively."
Islip Councilmen Christopher Bodkin and Gene Parrington, Islip
Supervisor Phil Nolan, and James Wecht, representative for the air
traffic controllers union, also joined the press conference.
Without the Departure Control System, air traffic controllers
will have to make manual phone calls to obtain approval for each
departure.
"If you're going to make manual calls, that means it's less
efficient," said Israel. "If it's less efficient, that means it's
going to have a negative impact."
"It's the electronic era and they're going in reverse," added
Phil Nolan. "If it's not broke, don't fix it."
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Salac responded, saying the move to
Morristown will make New York airspace more efficient overall and
would not cause delays at MacArthur.
"The controllers will be doing the same job the same way they
did before they got the Departure Spacing Program," Salac said.
The DSP was installed as a test program at MacArthur in 2002. It
calculates the most efficient routes and automatically approves
flights for departure.
The flight number appears in green on an LCD screen, meaning the
flight is approved. "We don't have to call a soul," controller
James Wecht said. "That cuts down on 95 percent of our
coordination."
Without the system, Islip controllers will have to call the New
York Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), which oversees
airspace in New York, Delaware, New Jersey and across the
Atlantic.
According to Wecht, "The staffing at the ARTCC is so bad, nobody
answers the phone anymore and when the weather goes bad, forget
about it. You're going to sit on the ground for three, four, five
hours."
Islip MacArthur has about 130 departures a day and close to
three million passengers, in contrast to Morristown with no
commercial airline traffic.
"The FAA is telling Long Islanders that their convenience is
less of a priority than air travelers in New Jersey," Israel said.
"The administrator of the FAA has agreed to meet to try to resolve
this issue next week. If that doesn't work, we will fight this in
his budget."