Captain Comptroller

Not to downplay the role of the New York City comptroller, but, you know, what does he really know about scheduling airplanes? No matter:

Flight delays at the region’s three major airports outpaced those in the rest of the nation, hurting the city’s economic competitiveness, said a report released yesterday by Comptroller William Thompson.

If the trend is not reversed, Thompson warned, the airports might be forced to impose flight caps or implement a congestion-pricing charge, with landing fees based on the time of day.

“The situation is urgent,” he said. “The much larger declines in on-time performance could discourage employers from locating new jobs and facilities in New York and lead some firms to relocate jobs elsewhere.”

In 2003, area airports had on-time arrival rates 5 percentage points below the national average. But in the first three quarters of 2007, those rates were 13 points off. Now just 60 percent of scheduled flights arrive here on time, the report said.

At 36 minutes, Kennedy is leading the nation this year in “taxi outs,” the period between gate departure and when a plane’s wheels leave the ground. The average taxi-out was 16 minutes nationally, but 29 minutes at Newark and 28 minutes at LaGuardia. The three airports were in the top six for cancellations.

The main reason is an “enormous” increase in flights, Thompson said. The number of planes at Kennedy climbed 14 percent from 2000 to ’06, and then soared another 23.5 percent in 2007.