The court ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration would have to revisit the question of whether the Port Authority should be allowed to apply air ticket surcharges to the cost of the $1.5 billion airport access project. The airline industry successfully argued that the PA's request to the FAA was based in part on information submitted after the public comment period on the application had expired. Local airport authorities may ask to impose a "Passenger Facility Charge" on air passengers to finance an "eligible airport-related project." The PA plans to apply a $3 fee to passengers leaving from its airports to the Jamaica-JFK rail link. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is required to make such a request public and accept comments before approval.

But the FAA's decision was based on information never made public - PA estimates that JFK's air passengers would increase to 3.35 million by 2013 because the light rail would enable JFK to close the gap between air travel and land access capacities.

The airline industry claimed that had that information been public, it would have argued that the airport rail's forecasted benefits are based on erroneous assumptions, and that the limits on JFK's capacity derive not from limited ground access, but rather from airline "slot" limitations. In other words, air capacity limitations will be reached long before ground transport constraints. If the airline industry has a strong argument on the definition of "enhanced capacity" at JFK, the PA could be in for a tough fight when the FAA looks at the issue again. No schedule has been set for the review. Meanwhile, opponents of the JFK project have asked New York City to suspend the rail project's land use review until the funding issue is resolved.

One way to bring Port Authority doings and issues into brighter light is passage of legislation pending in Albany and Trenton. Bills introduced in the NY Legislature by Senator John Marchi and Assemblyman Al Vann (A. 2581, S.2150 mandate a public speaking segment at PA meetings prior to board votes, and release of agendas in advance of the meetings (see MTR #171). NJ Assembly Transportation Chair Alex DeCroce is having an identical bill drafted in Trenton. The bills would have to become law in both states to become binding for the PA.