Strategies to evaluate aircraft routing plans at Newark International Airport

In early 1998, the authors were retained by the New Jersey Department of the Treasury to identify a clear set of principles, tools, resources, and methodologies that could be used to evaluate effectively all aspects of an airport routing plan. The project was initiated at the urging of citizens who had argued for ten years that ocean routing of aircraft at Newark International Airport would substantially reduce associated noise impacts in the subject area. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Continental Airlines, the major carrier at Newark, were steadfast in their belief that developing an ocean routing plan would create additional flight delays at the airport. Newark Airport has already experienced the greatest delays of any airport in the United States 9 out of the last 12 years. The plan, they further argued, would increase noise in communities in proximity to the ocean. The authors met with the various stakeholders, reviewed their positions and thei...