AIRPORT REPORT: NEW YORK
an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on additional runway capacity, a process that could take a minimum of six or seven years to complete. “The important message here is that we are not just going to wait until we run out of capacity, and start to actually turn away customers and airlines before we do anything,” she says. “We are on the case now and working very diligently to ensure that we are in a position to add capacity some time in the early 2020s.” With some of the possible runway options available including building over water or extending out into local communities, Baer is only too aware that enhancing airfield capacity at JFK and Newark won’t be universally popular with the neighbours. However, like her counterpart Colin Matthews at London Heathrow Airport, who desperately wants a third runway, Baer says the economic impact of aviation – it accounts for 5% of GDP in the US – means that some tough choices have to be made.
Traffic highlights
A total of 109 million passengers passed through New York’s big three gateways in 2012 – a rise of 3.3% despite closures and disruption caused by Superstorm Sandy. JFK handled an all-time high of 49.3 million passengers (+3.5%) while Newark and LaGuardia welcomed 34 million (+0.9%) and 25.7 million (+6.6%) respectively. The traffic levels fall just short of the pre-recession record of 110 million set in 2007. “It already has a temporary US Customs facility and we are building a new Federal Inspection Services (FIS) facility to ensure that it is fully equipped for regular international traffic.”
The Baer facts Stewart Airport
Baer also believes that New York’s ‘other’ commercial airport, Stewart, will also play a bigger part in the future, but as a regional airport in its own right and as a reliever gateway for JFK, LaGuardia and Newark. Her conviction is based on the belief that Stewart has a potential catchment area of 10 million people living within an hour’s drive of its facilities. “Stewart can be a good regional airport that can meet the demand of those 10 million people, and that is our goal, but to think that it could serve the major New York, Manhattan, focused market is not realistic.” Three airlines currently serve Stewart, and Baer says that its loca l communities have been very supportive of PANYNJ’s attempts to develop its route network and improve its facilities. “We believe that it also has the potential to handle charter services and some international low-cost carriers,” says Baer. Born and raised not so far away from New York in north-eastern Pennsylvania, Baer joined the PANYNJ as a management analyst in 1988 and admits that rising to the top job was something that never entered her head 25 years ago. She is, in fact, the only woman to have held the lofty position in the 92-year history of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. And this, together with the fact that she is the only person to have managed all three major New York airports – LaGuardia (1994-98), Newark Liberty (1998-2007) and JFK (2007-2008) – makes her unique. Surely this is something to be proud of? She agrees, but claims to be more thrilled by being the only person to have managed all three airports than the honour of being the first woman to be appointed PANYNJ’s aviation director. “I was the first woman to do almost every job I’ve done, so I don’t really look at things that way,” laughs Baer. “Running all three airports, though, I am proud of that one.
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AIRPORT WORLD/AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2013