Congestion Pricing for the New York Airports: Reducing Delays while Promoting Growth and Competition

Abstract:

The three major airports serving the New York metro area--Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA), and Newark (EWR)--have become significantly more congested in the past five years and are now among the five most-congested in the country. The economic cost of this congestion to airlines and passengers in the metro area is in excess of $1 billion per year. Our research addressed a comprehensive list of airline concerns--such as that pricing would be ineffective, that JFK (because of its trans-Atlantic service) is a special case, and that congestion pricing would divert attention and resources away from needed expansion of New York airport capacity. We analyzed nine specific airline concerns and concluded that a pricing system along the lines proposed in this report would deal with all nine.