With an unprecedented 100 million air travelers expected to use JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia airports in 2005 and still more in the years ahead, Bill DeCota, the Port Authority’s Aviation Director, recently discussed the challenges of managing growth at the agency’s airports. Here is some of what he had to say. Providing safe and efficient travel is one of the Port Authority’s highest priorities as is enhancing the well-being of everyone who lives, works and travels in the region. Like any organization of this kind and size, a number of challenges face us; but so do a range of solutions, many of them technology based. We need to harness technology to make more of the space we already have, whether we talk about baggage handling, bigger aircraft or many other of the challenges we face. At the same time, we want to move forward and improve the quality of service for our customers. Challenges and Technology-Based Solutions JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia, combined, comprise one of the largest airport systems in the world. They will handle 100 million passengers this year, and we are projecting that this number will rise to 114 million by 2010. We also handle nearly three million tons of cargo, and our projections are that this will grow robustly over the next decade. We do all this in a confined space – just 8,500 acres, including Teterboro Airport, our general aviation airport. To put this in context, during most of the day, a plane lands or takes off at one of our airports every 30 seconds. Capacity is a significant problem, because we simply do not have the space to build extra facilities to accommodate growth. The emergence of new aircraft like the A380 and the growing popularity of smaller regional jets are changing the shape of the industry. We also have a number of potential solutions, many of them rooted in technology. New technologies will potentially touch every aspect of the business, from the way passengers check in for their flights to the way we manage planes in the air. The best, if not only, approach to meeting the growing demand for air capacity is to harness some of these technologies Airports are nothing more than a physical infrastructure, but they team up with another form of technology in the shape of aircraft. For years, as that technology got faster and bigger and traveled further distances, we were able to keep pace with demand by extending our runways, building international terminals and so forth. Today there is no more room for bricks and mortar, and that is the biggest challenge. How can we grow an airport system from 94 million passengers in 2004 to 125 million passengers by 2015? How can we take an airport system that now handles three million tons of cargo and will handle four and a half million tons of cargo by then as well? The answer is technology. That means improved air traffic control, bigger and different types of aircraft technology and new technologies to manage the airport infrastructure. There is a wonderful potential to increase the air space beyond where it is today. Planes are still going to land on the ground and people will still be going to a boarding gate. But while the air space itself is still finite, we can make much more efficient use of it. The same is true of the aircraft themselves. With the A380 super-jumbo, we will be able to get 555 people on a plane as well as thousands of tons of cargo. That will make a big difference in terms of capacity. Putting more people in the plane means fewer movements both on the ground and in the air, so suddenly we may be able to expand capacity without increasing our 1,400,000 aircraft movements. The flipside of these developments at the high-end is the rapid growth of regional jets, with 50-seat planes now commonly flying multiple times to small destinations, which is not conducive to maximizing airport capacity. This is not a commercial issue, it is an operational one. Ultimately, choice and capacity are not synonymous, and we believe there will have to be new pricing regulations or new administrative rulings. There are only 68 people on average sitting on a plane that lands at LaGuardia. Even at Kennedy there are only 104 people on average. So we have to work on improving efficiency and, while we can create some extra capacity through technology, some of it has to come through policy and regulation. Modernizing Infrastructure There are also a number of things we can change to improve airport infrastructure. For example, we need common information displays at our terminals and common-use terminals built on a common infrastructure to accommodate any kind of aircraft that wants to operate here. From a passenger perspective, the changes will be both practical and radical. Whether you are on a lap or desktop computer, using a wireless device or an airport kiosk, every element of your trip is managed and you are identified and known at every stage. The fact that we have wireless technology and extremely small devices that not only have memories but can also communicate with one another is an incredible breakthrough that will have massive implications for capacity, service and security at airports. Think of developments such as e-ticketing and automated check-in or RFID on your baggage tag that ensures it can be tracked at all times. Your duty free could be brought to you automatically. If you drive to the airport, an E-ZPass tag pays for your parking and can reserve a spot for you. And consider the whole idea of the Trusted Traveler, which allows you to be identified and fast-tracked through security if you are willing to submit yourself to a background check, which means the airport need not worry about picking through every person heading for the gates. Similarly, using shared technology increases flexibility and capacity, as do baggage scanners used to occupy huge amounts of space where the latest systems can sit on top of counters. We also have in-line baggage screening which automatically takes the bag, decides whether there is a problem, does a secondary scan and ultimately can focus down to just a couple of bags. Technology like this is going to revolutionize airline capacity. You can take 8,500 acres of property and very little bricks and mortar, and begin to use technology in a way that accommodates the future. It is important to point out that much of this lies beyond the scope of individual airports. Because of technology expenses, the cost needs to be spread. Ultimately, it has to become worldwide or a new interoperability standard needs to be developed. That is the responsibility of either government or industry associations. Customer Service and the Peculiar Dynamics of Airports Along with capacity issues, improving the quality of customer service is a top priority for us while the unique nature of this industry presents some challenges. Our customers are an extremely diverse group of people with many different needs. We know how to please our customers in our terminals and when they shop in our stores. We know that in the cargo industry, the freight forwarders, container station operators and cargo brokers are all part of our customer base. But only 1,000 of the 72,000 people who work at our airports actually work for the Port Authority. So we work with our partners and contractors to set and maintain standards for all airport employees and organizations to work by. We also set standards for all the services the Port Authority itself delivers. Airlines and airports agree over the fundamentals of quality, service, price, value and variety; differences arise over the economics of delivering these fundamentals. So how can we provide the infrastructure and services we need to offer our customers in partnership with the airlines? Defining the Airport/Airline Partnership What we need is a new definition of the airport/airline partnership, and this definition is continuing to evolve. Airline profitability is improving as the industry continues to re-adapt and become more competitive. The simple fact is that there are still 700 million people who want to fly and need both the airport infrastructure and the airlines to do so. I believe that airlines will be self-sustaining in the long run, fueled by the huge growth for travel that looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. That convinces us that airports in general, and The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in particular, are doing the right thing. With the right ideas coupled with the right technology and public support, we plan to continue forging ahead together. I hope to be talking to you more about this evolving partnership in the months to come.

JetBlue Airways recently opened Jet- Blue University; a new support campus at the Orlando International Airport, offering initial and recurrent training for its Flight Operations, Flight Attendant, Technical Operations and Customer Service crewmembers. JetBlue University’s support campus originally broke ground on May 27, 2004, and contains approximately 107,000 square feet that includes an auditorium, classrooms, briefing rooms, offices and an outdoor training pool. Additionally, the facility currently holds four Airbus A320 full-flight simulators and one Embraer E190 simulator. A second E190 simulator will be installed in August and future growth could provide spacing for up to 16 full-flight simulators. CAE of Toronto, Canada, is the exclusive provider of the full-flight simulators. There will also be two cabin trainers, one for each aircraft type, which will be used as the cornerstone for JetBlue’s Flight Attendant training and certification. JetBlue also announced it reached an agreement in principle with the Greater Orlando Airport Authority (GOAA) to lease 4.5 additional acres adjacent to its existing JetBlue University Support Campus. JetBlue plans to construct a $20 million lodge which will be used to accommodate its crewmembers who are in the Greater Orlando area conducting training and other related airline business.

System, and many generous organizations and businesses that donated time and money. The child was burned on 78% of his body in a fire caused by a kitchen accident in the communal home he shared with his and other families. The home’s only exit was through the kitchen. Dan Nolan of the Galveston EHI operation said, “Of all the things that I have been associated with in my 40-plus years of work, this makes me the most proud.”