JFK COC held its annual scholarship luncheon at the Ramada Plaza hotel. Two children of JFK employees were awarded the Ernie Davis Memorial Scholarship of $750.00 each. Juliette Ocon, daughter of Marie Chindamo of North American Airlines, and student at Sachem High School. Juliette will be attending Oswego State University. Zachary Stephens is the son of Ed Stephens, also an employee of North American Airlines. Zachary attends Kings Park High School and will be attending Suffolk Community College in the fall. The Ernie Davis Memorial Scholarship is open to any child, grandchild, etc, of an aviation employee working in or near JFK. Chamber President William R. Puckhaber urges all parents to visit our web site by clicking the link “JFK Chamber of Commerce” on the main page of www.airportpress.us for exact details. Having a 90 plus average is not required,

therefore everybody should GO FOR IT. In addition, the Chamber presented $1,500 to Aviation High School, with no restrictions, to present either a tool box to a graduate(s) or cash to a graduate attending college. Our largest donation was $7500.00 to Vaughn College of Aeronautics as part of our fulfi llment funding $100,000.00 endowed scholarship. This scholarship has liberal requirements. Owning a home or having two incomes does not disqualify you. Again, check our web site. To date, the College has matched our generous scholarships.

To greatly reduce the risk caused by birds fl ying into aircraft as they enter or depart from metro airports, the Port Authority has announced a project that entails the physical removal of the birds from airport area nesting sites. In addition, the project will involve training and over-sight to prevent accidents such as the now well known US Airways fl ight that ended up in the Hudson River. On the eve of an annual goose roundup at Rikers Island that already has removed nearly 1,250

geese from the vicinity of LaGuardia Airport, the Port Authority highlighted a number of new initiatives to strengthen its aggressive bird mitigation program at the area’s airports, including the installation of a state-of-the-art bird radar pilot program at John F. Kennedy International Airport, and an agreement with New York City to pay half the costs of additional goose roundups to

remove thousands of Canada geese from city-owned properties in the vicinity of LaGuardia and JFK. In addition to the federally approved, multi-tiered approach the agency currently takes to wildlife mitigation, including habitat modifi cation, egg addling, nest removal, diversion, trapping and shooting when necessary. The Port Authority announced several additional steps it is taking: 1. Creating a memorandum of understanding with New York City that will lead to the roundup and removal of thousands of Canada geese from city-owned properties in the vicinity of LaGuardia and JFK. The Port Authority will pay half of the cost of this effort which will be carried out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2. Installing a state-of-the-art bird radar pilot program at JFK. 3. Hiring of a second airport wildlife biologist - two of only seven in the nation- to enhance a wildlife hazard mitigation program at Newark Liberty International, La- Guardia and JFK that already is one of the most aggressive in the country, featuring a falconry program to reduce the hazard posed by gulls. 4. Hiring of an independent evaluator to review the agency’s FAA-certifi ed Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Plans for the three major airports. 5. Training airport supervisors as certifi ed shotgun instructors to increase the capacity to shoot birds when necessary. The Port Authority via this announcement is determined to reduce the risk of bird strikes on it’s airports in the metro region.

Soon, pet owners who live in a handful of large U.S. cities will have the ability to arrange for their pets to fl y; not in a scary cargo hold, but in the main cabin with their own fl ight attendants. Pet Airways plans to begin service on July 14 as the USA’s fi rst pets-only carrier — no human passengers allowed. The introductory fare: $149 each way. For that, pets will be fl own in individual crates in lighted and pressurized plane cabins, with a human attendant checking them every 15 minutes. They’ll board, just like people, from their own airport lounges and get overnight lodging accommodations on long-haul fl ights. Their owners can track their whereabouts at all times online. They can even earn “pet points” as frequent fliers. Pet Airways won’t solve every

owner’s needs initially. It will serve only five U.S. destinations: Baltimore/ Washington International Airport, plus non-commercial airports in the New York City area, and in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles. It’s catering to dogs and cats starting out. And it’ll fly each route once a week. But Pet Airways founders, husband and wife team Alysa Binder and Dan Wiesel, have big expansion plans and are convinced there will be plenty of demand from pet lovers to achieve this.