Airlines ask FAA to extend New York slot waivers through late 2025

12.04.2024 - 22:17 / thepointsguy.com / John F.Kennedy / Airlines

Airlines want permission to operate fewer flights to New York without penalty through most of 2025; they're citing a continued shortage of air traffic controllers that carriers don't expect will sufficiently improve within the next 18 months.

Last week, Airlines for America — a lobbying group for the largest U.S. carriers — requested that the Federal Aviation Administration extend its relaxed scheduling rules for airlines in New York through at least October 2025, according to a letter viewed by TPG.

The FAA is reviewing the request, a spokesperson told TPG Friday.

Last spring, the FAA first allowed airlines to reduce capacity — without penalty — in the New York region at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), LaGuardia Airport (LGA) and Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).

Slots rules, explained: The little-understood government rule that allows airlines to dominate certain airports

This added flexibility takes some of the bite out of use-it-or-lose-it rules around the "slots" the FAA employs at JFK and LaGuardia. Essentially, one slot coveys the right for an airline to operate one takeoff or one landing. Current rules mandate airlines use their slots for a certain amount of the year at those airports, or they risk forfeiting them. This is meant to prevent airlines from hoarding slots they don't intend to use as a way of keeping rival airlines out.

Similar rules govern Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA).

The FAA also closely meters takeoffs and landings at Newark.

Staffing levels at the agency's critical New York air traffic control facility are lagging far behind targets; so, in 2023, the agency began temporarily allowing airlines to voluntarily reduce their schedules by up to 10% without the risk of forfeiting future flights.

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The current waivers also allow airlines to reduce schedules between DCA and New York.

The agency's goal: to lessen the burden on the region's packed airspace and on the air traffic controllers who manage it.

Airlines widely praised the FAA's limited, conditional slot waivers, which the agency initially deployed for the summer 2023 travel season and later extended. The move has helped fuel a "noticeably better travel experience," Airlines for America said, compared with mass disruptions that plagued air travel in 2022.

As of now, those waivers are set to last through October 2024.

Airlines are now planning their 2025 schedules, and they fear air traffic control staffing will not improve meaningfully over the next 18 months.

"The underlying conditions creating the need for a waiver will still exist as staffing shortages persist," read the April 3 letter from the