CNN news 2011-01-04
The tarmac delay situation at John F. Kennedy Airport turns out to be far worse than previously reported. The port authority of New York and New Jersey which owns the airport tells CNN 29 international flights suffered delays of more three hours on the tarmac at JFK. Why would that happened? Part of the reason is the fact that many streets in the outer burrows of Brooklyn and Queens were not ploughed, have still not been ploughed two days after the storm. Now, the Customs Department tells us customs in board of protection says some of its employees were unable to get to the airport. Many of the people who worked at JFK Airport live in the burrow of Queens. That's where the airport is. Also, a major contractor that provides workers at the airport says it still can't get the people over to the airport. That company, Swiss port, and the owner of the major international terminal there, terminal 4, a private company says it too has suffered because staff simply could not get to the gates. As a result, the company says, servicing of deporting aircraft was delayed as aircraft continued to arrive, a shortage of aircraft parking positions result in, causing delays to arrive in aircrafts. In other words, planes couldn't get away from gates, so arriving planes couldn't park at gates. A major problem now. The company that owns terminal 4 also says it informed the airlines of this problem. But nonetheless they send their planes to JKF anyway. Cafe Pacific tells CNN it is investigating the situation. British Air says it was a problem of JFK simply being too crowded, too congested. The other airlines did not respond to CNN's enquiries but clearly a fiasco at JKF airport and then investigation is going to follow.