BEFORE THE

FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION

WASHINGTON, DC

----------------------------------------------------------- x In the matter of :

: Application for T emporary W aiver of the : Docket No. FAA

- 2008

- 0221

O rder L imiting Scheduled Operations at : Newark Liberty International Airport :

----------------------------------------------------------- x

APPLICATION FOR TEMPORARY WAIVER OF

THE ORDER LIMITING SCHEDULED OPERATIONS

AT NEWARK LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

Airlines for America, which rep resents the largest U.S. passenger and cargo airlines, 1 requests

that the minimum operating

- authorization usage requirement at Newark Liberty International Airport (“EWR”) be temporarily waived in 2012 for the time s during which runways at the airport

will either be closed or their useable length reduced because of the runway 4R

- 22L reconstruction project

. 2 This request ed action is consistent with the relief that the Federal Aviation Administration provided for the 2010 closure of runway 13R

- 31L at John F. Kennedy International Airport. 3

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will resurface runway 4R

- 22L at EWR next

year . In addition, the Port Authority will undertake prepa r atory work for new taxiways for the

runway , and in stall new runway lightin g and electrical infrastructure. This is a major project. It is to begin on April 15 and be completed on December 15. The construction schedule is as

follows:

 Nightly closings (12:30 am through 6:30 am) of runway 4R

- 22L from April 15 through

December 15.

 E xtended weekend closings of runway 4R

- 22L from April 15 through November 15. Closures will occur from Saturday at 12:30 am through Sunday at 11:00 am. 4

 C ontinuous closing of runway 4R

- 22L from September 8 through September 17.

 C ontinuous closing of the i ntersection of runway 4R

- 22L and runway 11

- 29 from May 4 through May 9. This will result in shortening the available lengths of both runways.

The schedule is subject to change because of weather conditions.

These closures will significantly affect EWR’s throughput during the construction periods . EWR primarily relies on parallel northeast

- south we st runways for its operations. Runway 4R

- 22L is the principal arrivals runway for the airport. Its closure will mean that both arrivals and departures must use ru nway 4L

- 22R. Runway 11

- 29 is the cross

- wind runway that single

- aisle

1 Air Transport Association of America, Inc. d/ b/a Airlines for America

2 74 Fed. Reg. 51648 (Oct. 7, 2009).

3 74 Fed. Reg. 52838 (Oct. 14, 2009).

4 Work is not scheduled for the weekends of March 12

- 13; June 30

- July 1; and July 7

- 8.2

aircraft, particularly regional jets, sometimes use. Its construction

- caused shortening could limit those operations. Thus, for most operations, EWR will be turned into a single

- runway a irport during the periods when runway 4R

- 22L is closed. The airport is one of the busiest in the nation;

it had 403,339 operations in 2010

. 5 It is also experiences significant delays.

The FAA, the Port Authority and airlines have discussed ways to mitigat e the effects of this project. The construction schedule reflects those discussion s. Nevertheless, operations at EWR

will be affected. Arrival and departure demand at the airport is consistently high, even with the 2009 operating authorizations order. Th e analyses of the effects of the EWR project that MITRE’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (“CAASD”) has performed for the FAA clearly indicate that operational performance will decline appreciably because of the runway closures. The adverse effects that the CAASD has projected involve total and average delays

, as well as the number of operations with long delays. Based on the CAASD analyses,

current airline service patterns cannot be maintained during the affected periods. To minimize

custom er impact during the construction period, carriers necessarily will attempt to adjust schedules during planned runway and intersection closures.

Under the FAA’s order limiting scheduled operations at EWR, operating authorizations must be

used at least 80 percent of the time they are al located or the FAA will withdraw them. 6 However, that order also states that the FAA may waive the minimum usage requirement

in the event of a highly unusual and unpredictable condition which is beyond

the control of the ca rrier and which affects carrier operations for a period of five consecutive days or more. 7

The 2012 EWR construction program meets these criteria for grant of a temporary waiver of the minimum usage rule. The runway closures are highly unusual, unpredicta ble and beyond the control of airlines serving the airport. Moreover, they will occur over periods of more than five consecutive days.

Indeed , these circumstances mirror those involving the 2010 reconstruction closures of runway

13R

- 31L at Kennedy Airpor t for which the FAA issued a temporary waiver of the minimum usage rule. It concluded that those circumstances met the waiver criteria. 8 As the FAA stated in the order granting that waiver, “[w]ith the capacity impacts during the construction, the public

i nterest supports a reduction in operations in order to minimize delays and improve on

- time performance.” 9

In light of these considerations, we request that the FAA waive the minimum usage requirement

at EWR as follows:

1. D uring the month of September and at all other times that the Port Authority has

scheduled closures for the runway 4R

- 22L reconstruction project ;

5 Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, “2010 Airport Traffic R eport” at 9 (2011), accessible at

http://www.panynj.gov/airports/pdf

- traffic/ATR2010.pdf

.
6 74 Fed. Reg. at 51650, ordering ¶ 9.a., col. 1.

7 Id., ordering ¶ 9.a.ii., col. 2.

8 74 Fed. Reg. at 52838, col. 3.

9 Id.3

2. F or cancellations of scheduled operations where the cancellation is attributable to

excessive construction

- caused delays ; and

3. I f construction is changed to times or dates different than now scheduled

, or extended beyond the current schedule

, that an automatic waiver be granted for the new dates or times without the need for a subsequent petition to the FAA or approval by the FAA

.

This temporar y relief will enable air carriers to respond as effectively as possible to the reduction in capacity next year at EWR and is consistent with FAA policy

. It is in the public

interest.

Respectfully submitted,

AIRLINES FOR AMERICA

______________________ ___________ David A. Berg

Senior Vice President & General Counsel

1301 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004

202

- 626

- 4000 dberg@airlines.org

December 6, 2011