Schumer, Fossella to FAA: Ocean Routing Plan Bad for Staten Island, Bad for Airlines

Press Release

SCHUMER, FOSSELLA TO FAA: OCEAN ROUTING PLAN BAD FOR STATEN ISLAND, BAD FOR AIRLINES

In response to the airspace redesign plan released by the FAA Wednesday, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer and Representative Vito Fossella today urged the Federal Aviation Administration to eliminate permanent nighttime Ocean Routing as a component of the redesign. Oceanic routes in and out of Newark airport would heavily impact quality of life on Staten Island by creating noise and pollution in the skies over the South Shore, while also adding time and cost to flights mandated to take the lengthened route.

"It boggles the mind that the FAA with one hand concludes that Ocean Routing does not meet the ‘purpose and need' of airspace redesign, and with the other enacts it as a permanent nighttime route," Schumer said. "Ocean Routing is bad policy for Staten Islanders, and bad policy for airlines, but the FAA foolishly pushed ahead with it despite their own findings."

"The agency seems to be double-talking us," Fossella said. "The FAA is violating its mission by implementing a plan that its own studies prove is unsafe and inefficient. It is time for the FAA to stop playing politics and scrap Ocean Routing once and for all."

Ocean Routing has long been considered a noise burden for Staten Island residents and inefficient for the regions' airports and economy. It would direct planes leaving Newark to the New York side of the harbor, then up the Arthur Kill, to the lower bay, on their way to making their final ascents. Currently, air traffic controllers use oceanic routing only when necessitated by weather. The decision to advance permanent oceanic routing would result in Staten Island residents bearing an inequitable burden of airplane noise.

Also, Ocean Routing will actually increase arrival and departure delays at all New York City Metro area airports as well as dramatically increase overall flight times, thus increasing airline costs. The FAA has found that redirecting night traffic from Newark over Staten Island would cost $300 million a year in fuel costs alone. That cost will be passed along to the already overstressed air travel consumer. Additionally, because of the interdependency of regional transportation systems, the FAA has determined that Ocean Routing is only viable at night, from midnight to 6 AM, sending flights over residences as Staten Islanders try to sleep.

Schumer and Fossella's letter to FAA Administrator Marion Blakey urged the agency to reconsider its determination, and remove Ocean Routing from the airspace redesign plan.

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