The Problems and Promise of General Aviation in New Jersey
(Note: The New Jersey Aviation Association presents the following as a courtesy to Mid-Atlantic Aviation Coalition, one of our members. We believe that there are a number of proposals in this which the new Administration could well consider in order to improve the safety and capacity of our smaller airports.)
This will identify some of the problems of New Jersey’s system of public use General Aviation airports and recommend steps to meet the challenges that they pose. Especially in light of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the demand for General Aviation travel for business will become significantly greater. To meet the current and future demand for personal air transportation services, a substantial investment must be made at our airports to enhance operating safety and increase capacity. A failure to bring New Jersey airports up to national standards will cost us dearly during the next decade and on into the future.
Overview: The Nature of the Beast.
Let us start with a few facts that are unique to New Jersey aviation. Most (60%) of New Jersey’s public use airports are privately owned. This percentage of private ownership has declined for the past fifty years mainly because more than half of the privately owned airports that existed after World War II have closed. The current 60% ratio of private to publicly owned airports is still the highest percentage in the country.
New Jersey is the most densely populated State in the Union - twice as densely populated as India. In consequence, real estate is very expensive relative to the rest of the country. Further, the high concentration of people guarantees that some unhappy soul will be living near every public use airport in the State. Because of New Jersey’s reliance on property taxes to pay school funding costs, real estate taxes are very high relative to other States. Aircraft require a lot of real estate to operate and most airport property is taxed as it is zoned - at it’s “highest and best use.” Further, the public use portions of airports, the runways, taxiways and ramp areas, are subject to full property taxes.
The New Jersey Division of Aeronautics has become a creature of politics. Tucked away in a corner of the Department of Transportation, the Division answers to the Commissioner, a political appointee. If he is aviation friendly. as former Commissioner Frank Wilson was, things go well for aviation. Few previous administrations have chosen to enforce the1985 State law which requires municipalities to adopt rational airport zoning under the Air Safety Act. In some cases, municipalities take pride in their open hostility toward public use airports, down zoning them from “Permitted” to “Conditional” and, in the case of Readington Township, entering into condemnation proceedings against a family owned airport business that has operated in the public interest for more than 60 years.
Another failing of the State toward public use airports is inadequate investment in projects which will increase their capacity and improve operational safety. Large publicly owned facilities such as Newark International, Atlantic City International, and Mercer County have received adequate funding through State and Federal grants. Funding for the smaller reliever airports has been inadequate. “Reliever” is a FAA designation - General Aviation traffic that would otherwise be forced to use large air carrier facilities use near by relievers. Investment for safety and capacity at even smaller non-reliever airports is virtually non-existent.
A few decades ago the Legislature recognized that this investment was insufficient and established the Air Safety Fund to provide capital investment for airport related projects. Funding is provided from a 2 cent per gallon tax collected on aviation fuel purchases (at all New Jersey airports except Newark and Atlantic City International). However, since 1988 up to 90 percent of the Air Safety Fund has been misappropriated as salaries paid to Division of Aeronautics Personnel. Sadly, this seems to represent the attitude of the senior bureaucracy which administers aviation.
Aviation has had to live with “home rule” ever since the concept was embraced as the unofficial law of the land. Because airports serve regional rather than parochial municipal interests, their safety and utility have been compromised by backyard opponents. NIMBYs use their local influence to block or severely slow municipal approvals for both public and private investments in aviation safety and airport capacity. Some of these fights are legendary - Bedminster vs. Somerset Airport, Readington vs. Solberg Airport, Green Township vs. Trinca, Montgomery Township vs. Princeton Airport. Some of these battles have eventually been resolved in the airport’s favor but only after many years of needless legal expenses that have been borne solely by the airport owners with little support from the Division.
The Promise of General Aviation
Relative to commercial air carrier service, General Aviation provides superior point-to-point transportation to any travel destination within 1000 miles. Travel by small aircraft is faster, more convenient and in many cases less expensive than airlines. Beginning in 2004 with the advent of new aircraft designs, that radius of operation will exceed 1500 miles. For example the “Eclipse” is a small (five passenger) and virtually silent turbojet powered aircraft that will undergo testing within a year. It travels at 400 miles per hour and is nearly as efficient as an automobile. One firm has placed an order for 1000 (one thousand) Eclipse aircraft for use in air taxi operations. The Eclipse will revolutionize air travel in this decade much as the Beech Bonanza did fifty years ago. There have been very few quantum breakthroughs in small aircraft design since 1946. This is one of them.
For another example, a subsidiary of United Airlines has announced purchase of 150 business jets for charter operations. Some of the rationale given was that the parent company, UAL, Inc, realized that there was very little cost advantage to first class travel relative to on-demand charter services. Since the terrorist attacks, commercial air carrier service has declined by at least 25%. Much of this is due to passenger fear. In a charter or air taxi operation everyone knows everyone else on board. There is little possibility of a security threat from co-workers or family members.
Commercial air carrier operations are also slowed by factors such as the drive to the airport, the search for parking, transit to the terminal, newly complicated security and check in procedures, gate holds, delays in the queue of departing airliners, baggage collection at the arrival airport, and final ground travel to the destination. With travel by air taxi and charter, most of those steps are eliminated or significantly reduced. The convenience, security, and speed of point to point personal transportation can only become more popular over time.
In order to keep New Jersey in the forefront of American business, we must improve the smaller public use facilities that cater to the business traveler. Ensuring that our public use airports are safe and capable is one way to make sure New Jersey remains an attractive place to do business. Following are some suggestions for immediate consideration.
Recommendations for New Jersey General Aviation - November 2001
1. Who should administer aviation in New Jersey? We encourage the continued gubernatorial appointment of the Director of the Division of Aeronautics. The leadership role is too important to evolve into a bureaucratic posting. In order for the Division to function as a credible advocate for General Aviation, the Director must remain independent of the civil service staff and continue to serve at the pleasure of the Governor.
Further, the Division should be separated from non-aviation transportation functions - it is currently administered with ports, freight systems and other important but unrelated activities. This can be accomplished by creating an Aviation Commission or a separate Division of Aeronautics, “in but not of” the Department of Transportation.
2. How can the Division best serve the State’s aviation community? The mission and purpose of the Division should be redefined. Currently the Division’s principal activity is to licence airports, investigate accidents, and regulate certain aeronautical operations. Much of this activity is reserved to the FAA. At best this creates a conflict of authority as well as a duplication of effort. Greater emphasis should be placed on planning and engineering projects which will enhance pilot/passenger safety and capacity at the State’s aeronautical facilities. Additional weight should be given to promoting aviation to the general public as a valuable business tool and rewarding recreational activity. This change in emphasis will entail a re-writing of the regulations that govern the Division’s activities and responsibilities.
3. How should the Division be structured to best accomplish it’s mission? Re-organize the Division so that the jobs, roles and tasks of Division personnel conform with the Division’s restated mission. Administration of the Division’s budget and FAA block grant funding is a principal role of the Division. There should be some participation or oversight in the funding allocation process by the aviation community, possibly through the NJDOT Aviation Advisory Council.
4. What else should the Division be doing? Another principal responsibility of the Division is preserving and improving the State’s aeronautical facilities. To this end, the Division must put a priority on developing a plan and procedure to convert ownership of the top 20 privately owned New Jersey airports to public ownership. As an initial step the Division should make full use of the existing program to acquire public use airports and development rights of those key airports.
5. As part of the Division’s responsibility for aviation promotion, a concerted effort should be made to clarify the Division’s authority and responsibilities in relation to New Jersey’s airport host municipalities. Oversight of aeronautical activities and approval of safety related construction projects should be strictly reserved to the Division. The Division should also advise and educate local elected officials in order to obtain municipal consent and support for airport capacity improvements.
6. The Division has clear responsibility for ensuring aviation safety. A priority must be placed on removing vegetative and other obstructions at the State’s airports. Many smaller facilities have severely compromised safety and utility due to trees that encroach into airport approach paths. In order to protect public safety, private property rights in airport clear zones must be subordinated to the interests of the State. Attractive low growth vegetative buffers can replace trees that have grown into dangerous encum-brances over the past decades.
7. Lastly, Provision should be made for funding Division salaries from budget sources other than the Airport Safety Fund. The Legislative intent was to invest funds in capital improvements, not bureaucratic paychecks. The current misappropriation of funds is wrong and compromises the Division’s credibility within the aviation community.
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Last modified 10:35 AM, Friday, July 22, 2005
