A proposal to more than double the passenger capacity of Westchester County Airport from 2 million annually to 4.2 million has some local officials concerned.
County Executive Rob Astorino is seeking changes that would allow the airport to handle more passengers, proposals that are scheduled to be discussed by county legislators today, Feb. 29.
“They were just asking for the sun, the moon and the stars,” Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg told The Journal News.
Currently, the airport handles just over 11,500 passengers per day, but flights do not arrive or leave between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Because of that voluntary curfew, the proposed change from a set number of passengers per half hour to an average number would allow for the significant increase in passengers per day and year.
County officials claim that the proposed changes would decrease the overall number of flights in and out of the airport.
“This is what the airlines want, this is what the passengers want,” Astorino spokesperson Ned McCormack told The Journal News. “In our mind, this isn’t controversial, this is a common sense proposal that’s based on the realities of today.”
http://patch.com/new-york/rye/questions-raised-over-proposed-westchester-county-airport-changes-0