Slot auctions coming to all 3 NYC-area airports

The Transportation Department also said the government and industry must improve procedures for complying with maintenance and safety rules to avoid massive flight cancellations, like those that left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded last month when American Airlines and other carriers had to ground MD-80 jetliners to inspect or redo wiring. Those inspections were supposed to have been completed in March.

The White House, which demanded action after last summer's record delays, lauded the announcement made just a week before one of the busiest traveling holidays. But the airline industry and some critics said the effort will do little to ease delays -and the Air Transport Association threatened legal action to ground the plan.

The department last month announced similar slot auctions for New York's LaGuardia Airport that will require carriers to auction off some of their existing slots over the next five years and possibly retire others. The three New York-area airports, all of which will soon have flights capped during peak hours, last year had the nation's lowest on-time arrival rates. Aviation officials say delays there cascade throughout the system.

Under the latest proposals from DOT Secretary Mary Peters, all airlines operating at Newark and JFK would be given as many as 20 daily slots for the 10-year life of the rule.

Under one option at JFK, 10 percent of the airline's slots above the base amount would be made available via an auction, the carriers could bid on their own slots and proceeds would be invested in congestion and capacity improvements in the region. Or the airlines would auction 20 percent of slots above the baseline and keep all the proceeds. Depending on the option, up to 179 slots of the airport's 1,245 could be affected.

The plan also calls for auctioning 10 percent of slots at Newark above the baseline annually for the first five years of the rule, making 96 slots out of 1,219 at the airport auctioned over the 10-year span.

The ATA, which represents the nation's largest airlines, and the International Air Transport Association said the government lacks the legal authority to impose the auctions.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs all three airports, isn't convinced auctions are the remedy to delay and said it will work with the industry "to examine our options for prohibiting the federal government from implementing" the plan.

If the airlines sued, they would not get an injunction because proving "irreparable harm" when finances are involved is very difficult, said DOT General Counsel D.J. Gribbin. The government would still conduct the auctions and then "see what the courts decide," he added.