On 22nd June 2007, a number of KLM’s executives flew in from Netherlands to New York to be on hand for this special occasion., including Jaap v.d. Linde, Sr. Vice President Outstations, Mr. Jan Willem Smeullers, Sr. Vice President Commercial for North and South Atlantic. “It is with great pride that KLM announces our new lounge at one of our top destinations; JFK, “said Jan Willem Smeullers. “We were looking for this special occasion and are extremely happy to serve our top customers which includes our Alliance Partners and several other airline

customers who are using our Lounge, “said Jaap v.d. Linde. Apart from KLM there are number of other airlines using this ultra-modern First Class Lounge, which includes, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Royal Jordanian, Kuwait Airways, Aer Lingus, Air Jamaica, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Czech Airlines, and Lan Chile. Almost 100 people attended the opening of the lounge followed by the luncheon.The Airline users, KLM & Swissport staff members, officials from JFK-IAT including Alain Maca, President of JFKIAT, the Contractor Mr. Paul Iserino who had renovated the lounge, the Deputy Consul General from the Netherlands Consulate General Mr. Walter Oostelbos and several others attended the function.

The Airport Medical Offices at Newark and JFK, unveiled their newest medical office today, the Airport Medical Offices at LaGuardia. Over 300 dignitaries and honored guests from the airport community were invited to the Ribbon Cutting ceremony and Open House along with a tour of the facility. Warren Kroeppel, the General Manager of the Airport was on-hand for the Ribbon Cutting. “We are excited to launch our newest, state-of-the art airport medical facility and to bring our team of highly qualified Physicians and healthcare professionals to LaGuardia Airport. Our convenient location on the third floor in the Central Terminal Building at LaGuardia provides employees and travelers alike with easy access to quality medical services right at the airport; ” Said Thomas D. Kelliher, Chief Executive Officer.

woman accompany the suspect and called the Port Authority Police. The male suspect then fled the scene. A Port Authority Police investigation determined that this young woman had been violently beaten and repeatedly abused by this man. The suspect was soon apprehended & eventually arrested for these beatings. TSA Agent Gonzalez was awarded Airport Community Watch's $1000 Industry Award for his actions as a 'Good Samaritan' & a concerned airport employee.

Besim Markovic, JetBlue aircraft line maintenance technician happened to be watching FOX News when he saw a news bulletin about the young runaway teen from England & his photo displayed on the screen. For some reason, that image stayed in his mind all during the night. The next day, as he was exiting the Airtrain at the JetBlue terminal, who should he see seated directly in front of him was the teenage runaway (sitting in the terminal). He immediately called 911, who connected him to the PAPD. He reported it to the PAPD & they arrived very quickly to determine it was the missing boy, George Lenon.

Last year, the Airport Press wrote a piece that criticized local politicians and their complaints about the level of service at JFK, Newark and LaGuardia airports. Well, maybe it’s time for me to admit that I may have been too strong in my criticism of the politicians. We really do seem to have a problem and it appears to be getting worse. When it comes to getting people to places on time, we are not performing nearly as well as airports in other parts of the United States. Between January and April, 38 percent of all flights at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia were either late or canceled, leading to disruptions nationwide.

And when planes were late, they were really late. Folks unlucky enough to be on one of the 15,480 delayed flights from Newark left the ground an average 95 minutes after their scheduled departure time, according to federal figures. The 14,752 late arrivals at LaGuardia were, on average, an hour tardy.