Virgin America Inc., the start-up airline partly owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, said yesterday it is seeking to significantly increase the number of slots allotted for it and other smaller airlines at Kennedy Airport, which government and aviation officials say is already overcrowded.
Virgin America's vice president of planning and sales, Brian Clark, is set to make the request to federal and airline officials at a meeting in Washington, D.C., today. Abby Lunardini, a Virgin America spokeswoman, said Clark will ask that the smaller carriers be given 30 slots a day. A slot is for a takeoff or landing.
The airlines involved include Virgin America, which began flying in August, Midwest Air, AirTran and Frontier Airlines.
Ken Quinn, Virgin America's outside counsel, said smaller carriers currently have few or no slots at Kennedy. Virgin America now offers eight round-trip flights a day from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Kennedy.
"JFK is just about utterly lacking in new entrant service," Quinn said. "We're trying to penetrate a market largely owned by three airlines." JetBlue Airways Corp. of Forest Hills, Delta Air Lines of Atlanta and American Airlines of Dallas are the major domestic carriers serving Kennedy. Kennedy is JetBlue's main base.
The Port Authority of New York said America West, AirTran and Frontier do not have operations at Kennedy now.
"We're not pushing for big carriers to get cut," Lunardini said, adding that Virgin America and the other smaller carriers want an opportunity to expand their services.
The organization representing major carriers, the Air Transport Association of Washington, D.C., opposes any such increases in slots for the smaller carriers.
"There's already a congestion issue at JFK," said David Castelveter, a spokesman for the association. He noted the U.S. Department of Transportation is studying ways to reduce congestion at New York's airports. "We don't oppose new entrants flying into JFK," said Castelveter. "What we do oppose is their flying into JFK at the expense of the legacy carriers."
