STATEMENT
John W. Olcott
President, New Jersey Aviation Association
Hearing on Operations and Safety of Teterboro Airport
Senate Legislative Oversight Committee
New Jersey State Legislature
June 20, 2005
Committee Members, thank you for the opportunity to appear before this body to express my opinions about the operations and safety of Teterboro Airport. My name is John Olcott. I am president of the New Jersey Aviation Association, a membership organization formed about five years ago to advocate the responsible growth of aviation as a means for enhancing economic development and improving quality of life for New Jersey residents. Many of you may know several of the founders of NJAA. The first president of the Association and my predecessor is the current Commission of Labor, the Honorable Thomas Carver.
You do not know me, so please let me say why I was asked by the NJAA to take the position I now hold. Throughout a career that is approaching 50 years, I have focused almost exclusively on aviation. Educated at Princeton and Rutgers with Masters Degrees in aeronautical engineering and business administration, and holding an airline transport pilot license with several type ratings for business jets, I recently retired from the presidency of the National Business Aviation Association, based in Washington, DC. Currently I own General Aero Company, Inc, a consulting firm located at Morristown Municipal Airport and fly a Beech Baron light twin.
Teterboro Airport, located in Bergen County immediately to the south of Route 46 and approximately five miles due West of the George Washington Bridge, is an important element within our nation’s air transportation system. The Federal Aviation Administration designates Teterboro as a reliever airport for Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and JFK airports, which means it is used to reduce congestion and delays at those hubs by providing facilities for non-airline traffic, that segment of transportation known as General Aviation. In 2003, Teterboro Airport was the 24th busiest airport in the nation and the ninth busiest among those airports that primarily serve General Aviation. It is home base for flight departments of many leading NJ corporations, and it provides a gateway to a vitally important industrial region of our state as well as to New York City.
Teterboro Airport is also an important source of economic activity for New Jersey. According to a May 2005 report issued by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport is responsible for 15,554 jobs that produce $670 million in annual wages, and it generates $1.8 billion in sales each year. Approximately 4 percent of all personal income earned by residents of Bergen County is attributed to Teterboro Airport. Passengers and crews landing there purchase more than 400,000 room nights at area hotels annually, from which $500,000 in local occupancy taxes are collected.
The airport’s “softer” benefits include access to air transportation for medical patients with special needs as well as resources for students seeking aviation education. The first state Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum, established at Teterboro Airport in 1972, continues today as a source of inspiration to youth who wish to pursue aviation for profit and pleasure, and desire to learn about the airport’s place in aviation history dating back to 1916 when property for the landing field was purchased from Walter C. Teter of Montclair.
Through efforts of the Port Authority, operators at the airport and local residents, Teterboro Airport is a leader in “Good Neighbor” policies. In excess of $35 million have been spent on soundproofing schools. The airport has an aggressive “Three strikes and you are out” noise policy, and it encourages continued dialogue between airport user groups and representatives from towns surrounding the airport.
While considerable attention has been directed at the airport this year due to an unusual occurrence of four non-fatal accidents and incidents, Teterboro has an excellent safety record. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there have been no fatal accidents of jet aircraft related directly to a takeoff or landing there for as long as the Board has been tracking such data (which began in the 1960s for business jets). Turbine-powered General Aviation aircraft used for business—the type of aircraft that constitutes the majority of traffic at Teterboro—exhibits outstanding safety that is on a par with the largest scheduled airlines. For 2004, professionally flown GA aircraft used for corporate and executive operations had a record of 0.11 overall accidents and 0.013 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours. As a point of reference, Route 46 experienced 3.62 automobile accidents per 1 million miles of driving in 2003. Assuming an average speed of 40 mph, 1 million miles might equate to about 25,000 hours of operation.
General Aviation’s safety rate continues to improve as activity levels increase. The number of business jets and turboprops has grown from 10,044 aircraft in 1994 to 15,704 at the end of 2004—an increase of 56 percent. Yet the overall rate of accidents for this class of GA aircraft has dropped by nearly 40 percent and the fatal accident rate has decreased by over 80 percent.
In summary:
- Teterboro Airport is safe, well-managed and important to the economy of the region
- The number of accidents at Teterboro this year is highly unusual and not attributable to any systematic change at the airport
- Curtailing operations at Teterboro Airport would have a noticeable impact on the region’s economy
- There is no rational basis for assuming that curtailing operations at Teterboro Airport would improve safety or dramatically lower the existing low probability of a really bad crash at Teterboro
Recommendations:
