J.F.K. 2000:
Building Towards A Future Of Flight

On a frigid December morning at an unassuming field called Kitty Hawk, a pair of innovative inventors shattered all previous notions of human limitations. While their first successful flight lasted a mere 12 seconds, it was ample time for Orville and Wilbur Wright to revolutionize the future. Nearly a century later, John F. Kennedy International Airport is reaching far beyond anything the two aviation pioneers ever envisioned to build a transportation and commerce center in Queens for 2000 and beyond.

THE FUTURE IS NOW: A plane coming in for a landing over futuristically redesigned terminal. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

With travelers flocking to New York City in record numbers, the quasi-governmental agency known as the Port Authority is undertaking the largest airport renovation program in history to keep pace with the growing menagerie of faces that pass through J.F.K. every day.

The J.F.K. Redevelopment Program consists of Port Authority and tenant construction and expansion projects. Already completed is the construction of a new Terminal 1 on the site of the former Eastern Air Lines facility. Currently, major terminal construction projects are underway at British Airways and Terminal 4, and construction at American Airlines is expected to begin later this year. The Port Authority’s program includes a new roadway system, new and upgraded utilities, a new Air Traffic Control Tower, three new parking garages and a light rail tranist system that will link the passenger terminals to one another and to the Long Island Rail Road and the city subway system.

However, these advancements have a price that may far exceed the $9 billion investment, as community concerns continue to grow over safety, environmental and quality of life issues.

A major component of the Port Authority’s redevelopment project — the controversial $1.5 billion AirTrain — has already reached the halfway mark, according to Port Authority Executive Director Robert E. Boyle.

An artist’s rendition of the impending AirTrain.

Construction began in September 1998 on the 8.1-mile light rail system that will connect to the Howard Beach Station of the A train, and to the Jamaica Station transportation complex, where passengers can change for the Long Island Rail Road, the E, J and Z subway lines, and more than 40 bus lines.

Boyle said the on-airport segments of AirTrain will be completed in late 2002, with the link to Jamaica Station scheduled for completion in 2003.

However, communities near the airport have fought the rail project since its inception. After the City Council overwhelmingly approved the new transit system last spring — though their own report identified concerns over some aspects of the plan — the battle moved into the courts. In October, the Southeast Queens Concerned Neighbors and the Committee for Better Transit filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to halt work on the rail line.

Residents fear noise and confusion from construction of the 3.1 mile elevated line along the median of the Van Wyck Expressway, and say it will turn the side streets into a parking lot. They worry about construction destroying water mains and house foundations, and criticize the use of a highway median. So far, only City Councilwoman Julia Harrison has supported the neighbors, filing a friend of the court brief on their behalf.

While the embattled AirTrain project continues to progress, Mayor Rudy Giuliani recently announced that the New York City Industrial Development Agency (IDA) will help American Airlines construct a new 59-gate terminal at J.F.K. The 2 million-square-foot terminal is expected to be completed in 2006 and will feature three concourses that will accomodate approximately 40,000 passengers per day, or 14 million passengers a year, making it the largest-ever airport construction project to be undertaken by a single airline.

A sign at Kennedy Airport highlighting various redevelopment projects. Tribune Photo By Ira Cohen

At its December Board meeting, the IDA approved an agreement to provide American with $1.3 billion in triple tax-exempt Special Exempt Facility Revenue Bonds to build the new terminal. The facility will be located on the site of American’s former Terminals 8 and 9 and on 42 acres of land behind the existing terminals. The facility will also serve American Eagle, American’s regional line, and international carriers with which American has subleasing arrangements.

"American Airlines currently employs approximately 4,500 workers at J.F.K.," said Randy Levine, deputy mayor of Economic Development, Planning and Administration. "This new terminal will add more than 1,200 new permanent jobs at the airport, as well as create over 1,000 construction jobs. This is a huge benefit for the Queens community, as well as for all of New York City."

Though supporting the American Airlines project, the Mayor has also shown disdain for the Port Authority itself. In October, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) — on behalf of the Giuliani administration — issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the privatization of both New York airports when the Port Authority’s lease runs out in 2015. The EDC has extended the deadline for proposals to Jan. 28, 2000 because several potential respondents have requested more time to prepare comprehensive proposals.

"Due to the complex nature of this important project, the City and EDC have decided to extend the deadline," said EDC President Michael G. Carey. "It is paramount that we get the very best proposals possible for our airports."

The selected company will initially act as a consultant to the EDC on airport matters until the Port Authority’s lease expires in 2015. At that time — or earlier if the lease is terminated — the company will assume management, operation and development of J.F.K. and LaGuardia on behalf of the City.

The changes at J.F.K. are not limited to the facilities and services. William R. DeCota has been named the new Director of Aviation, with responsibility for Kennedy, Newark and LaGuardia airports and the unprecedented $15 billion public-private redevelopment program of the world’s largest airport complex.

Decota’s duties will also include overseeing the development, construction, operations and maintenance at the major area airports, as well as working on various promotion campaigns sponsored by the Port Authority.

DeCota, 42, an Old Bridge, N.J., resident, succeeds Robert J. Kelly, who retired last week after a 30-year career with the Port Authority.

DeCota will have is hands full as he steps into the middle of one of the most beleaguered management groups. Billions of dollars in Port Authority projects were thrown into limbo recently after the six New York commissioners boycotted a board meeting, charging that the giant bi-state agency favors New Jersey.

Vice Chairman Charles Gargano, New York’s highest-ranking commission official, called the meeting a "charade" and said that at some point the panel of commissioners will have to address the inequity.

The agency’s day-to-day operations at the bridges and tunnels, airports, PATH trains and ports have continued without interruption, but billions worth of new business remains stalled, including the prospective sale of the World Trade Center, the sale of air rights over the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan and the creation of a deep-water port in Newark Bay.

The expansion projects have also raised the ire of various community groups concerned about the risks increased air traffic poses to the surrounding environment. Sane Aviation For Everyone (S.A.F.E.), a coalition of independent citizens’ groups and individuals in the New York City metropolitan area, is dedicated to stopping and reversing the environmental and health impact of the area airports and the fair sharing of these impacts.

But more worrisome, public officials and health advocates say, is whether a family’s chronic illnesses — as well as the high rate of asthma in southeast Queens, especially among children — can be blamed on airport pollution.

Such concerns have spurred efforts by public and private agencies to get to the root of the problem. State Assemblyman William Scarborough of St. Albans, relying on a study by a national non-profit environmental group called The Natural Resources Defense Council, has introduced legislation in Albany to test for pollutants at the airports and surrounding communities. And Queens Borough President Claire Shulman called in city, state and federal environmental agencies in 1998 to monitor air quality throughout the borough.

Meanwhile, the steady drone of airplanes over homes and schools continues to be a plight on the residents of Queens.

Later this month, some of these residents are planning to take their concerns directly to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is embarked on a six-year, $30 million master plan to redesign the City’s air space. The agency’s aim is to move planes in and out more efficiently while also reducing noise.

Elected officials in Queens say that in recent years they have received increasing complaints about the aircraft noise.

Transportation officials counter that claim, saying no major changes have been made in the region’s flight patterns in nearly 15 years and that the advent of larger planes had actually reduced the umber of flights into the airports.

According to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, weather and crowded skies sometimes cause jets to deviate from a planned approach. Under the agency’s proposed airspace redesign, planes might be allowed to fly at higher altitudes before landing and after taking–off to help reduce noise pollution.

The agency will hold public meetings on the redesign at the Ramada Plaza at J.F.K. on Feb. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, Queens residents continue to pause, mid-conversation, and let the plane pass overhead as the revolution of aviation has yet to reach the level of peace and quiet that fell over Kitty Hawk before the brothers took flight.