Death to LaGuardia

Image via Wikipedia

Over at Freakonomics blog, Stephen Dubner proposes a way to reduce congestion at all New York City airports: s–tcan LaGuardia:

During a recent ground delay at LaGuardia, I got to talking with an off-duty pilot for a major airline who was extraordinarily knowledgeable about every single airline question I could think to ask him. (With any luck, he’ll soon be joining us here as a guest blogger.) When I asked for his take on New York air congestion, he said the solution was easy: shut down LaGuardia.

The problem, as he explained it, is that the airspace for each of the three airports extends cylindrically into the sky above its ground position. Because of their relative proximity, the three airspace cylinders affect one another significantly, which creates congestion not just because of volume but because pilots have to thread the needle and fly needlessly intricate approach routes in order to comply.

If the LaGuardia cylinder were eliminated, he said, Newark and J.F.K. would both operate much more freely — and, since LaGuardia handles far less traffic than the other two airports, it is the obvious choice for shuttering.

The problem is that LaGuardia is much loved by those who would make the decision, since it’s closer to Manhattan. And, there are the obvious cognitive biases: status quo bias (we’re fine the way things are) and loss aversion (we’d worry about missing LaGuardia more than we’d salivate over faster takeoffs and landings).

JFK is a longer trip from where I live. But if this is really the problem with air traffic around NYC — then let’s hold a party, bring some sledgehammers, and bring that mutha down.