Air Transportation Requires a Regional Airport System
Because the airplane can serve the New York Metropolitan Region only to the extent that it has available places for landing and taking off, the Region’s present lack of adequate airports threatens to restrict the number of plane passengers and air cargo tonnage that can be flown into the port of New York.
The Federal Government, recognizing that air terminal facilities must keep pace with the increasing number of flights, has authorized in the Federal Airport Act annual appropriations over a period of seven fiscal years amounting in the aggregate to $500,000,000, the grants generally to be made on the basis of a Federal share of 50 per cent.
Under the Act, airport aid is limited to the developments included in the National Airports Plan formulated by the Civil Aeronautics Administrator. To make a comprehensive plan, required from larger metropolitan areas for inclusion in the National Plan, the Regional Airport Conference was organized for the New Jersey-New York-Connecticut Metropolitan Region at the request of the CAA.