Out of the Stack

New York City's LaGuardia Airport is the world's busiest airline terminal and sometimes one of the world's most dangerous. Its runways are short and crowded. When the weather is bad, as many as 25 planes "stack-up" within the airport's control area, milling about under radio guidance, and waiting their turn to land.

Last week it looked as if New York-bound air travelers might get some relief from long waits, and the threat of stackup collisions which airmen have long feared. New York City and the state of New Jersey got together on the most ambitious airport development ever attempted --a tri-port system that might well set the pattern for safer air operations in all crowded centers. The new airport plan would be run by the Port of New York Authority, a unique bi-state agency which has proved itself one of the most efficient governmental bodies in the U.S.

Although the Authority had never run an airport, its reputation is such that New York City, five months ago, was glad to give it a lease on money-losing LaGuardia field and on New York International (Idlewild) field, which has proved a financial headache to the city. Last week, Newark turned over Newark Airport to the Authority on a rental basis that looked fine beside the $139,825 Newark had lost on its field last year. (Newark will get a minimum rental of $100,000 a year for 50 years.)

Pay As You Go. With the three ports, the Authority plans to establish a new air pattern for New York's Metropolitan area. The Authority firmly believes that the solution to air congestion is not merely bigger airports but a number of airports which split up the traffic. As a start, the low-traffic Newark port will handle 52 of the flights now using LaGuardia every day. Eventually, the Authority hopes that Newark will handle all the Metropolitan area's long-haul traffic; Idlewild, which will be opened by July, will handle transatlantic flights, and LaGuardia will be left only domestic, short-haul traffic. The Authority expects to spend $250,000,000 in the next five to seven years to develop the airports.

Like all Authority projects, the airports will have to pay their own way. Through the Authority's six bridges and tunnels* last year went 41,202,474 toll-paying motorists. In 19 years the Authority earned some $244,000,000 in toll charges, pier fees and rents. This covered its operating costs, and left $99,000,000 over for improvements, reserves and the reduction of its bonded debt, now $525,530,778. Its credit is such that one $18,757,000 bond, issue was sold at an interest rate of I.358%, lowest ever recorded for any municipal or state issue.

Authority's Angel. The Authority keeps clear of politics. It is run by twelve non-salaried commissioners (appointed by the governors of New York and New Jersey). The current chairman is Howard Stix Cullman, 56, dapper, hustling millionaire director of Cullman Bros., tobacco growers and merchants.

Yaleman Cullman has applied his business talents to many projects. During the depression, he became receiver for the famed Roxy Theater and put it on its feet. He is Broadway's best-known "angel," has helped back twelve hit plays. When a wire was sent asking him whether he would accept an appointment as commissioner of the Authority, Cullman characteristically replied: "Sure, but what is it?"

The Authority's full-time paid executive director is Austin Tobin, 44, who rose through the ranks. At a salary of $40,000 a year, he is one of the highest paid public officials in the U.S.

Honky-Tonk. Last week Cullman announced that the first $25,000,000 airport development issue would be floated early next year. No airport, he estimates, can count on more than 30% of its income from airline operations. To make the ports pay, Cullman will "put them squarely into the honky-tonk business."

At LaGuardia, the Authority has made a promising start. Fifty vending machines (tooth brushes, toothpaste, etc.) have been installed. To attract sightseers (at 10-c- a head), loudspeakers on the promenade ramp give a play-by-play explanation of operations. On one Sunday, some 13,000 people watched the show.

The passengers' lot has also been improved. When Cullman first inspected the field, he concluded that "they treat them worse than at Haifa." Waiting rooms were cleaned up, customs procedures speeded. But the passengers were still not happy enough for Cullman. At Idlewild they will have a hotel and, he hopes, a sports arena and an auditorium. By 1960 Cullman expects all three ports to be shopping and amusement centers, employing a combined total of 37,000 and earning enough from their concessionaires to pay for their own development.

* The George Washington, Bayonne, Goethals Bridges, the Outerbridge Crossing, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. The Authority also runs Brooklyn's Gowanus Grain Terminal, built the 14-story Port Authority Building that houses the Union Inland Railroad Freight Station for less-than-carload lots.

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