This story was sent to you by: Bill Hough -------------------- Air Industry Still Turbulent Since Sept. 11 -------------------- By Randi F. Marshall STAFF WRITER October 1, 2003 Although the region's air transportation industry has experienced a tentative comeback, it is still seeing lower employment and less international passenger traffic than before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Those are major concerns for Queens, where the air transportation sector now account for nearly 6 percent of jobs and more than 8 percent of wages, according to a report released yesterday by the Queens Economic Development Corp. In 2000, air transportation made up 7.5 percent of the borough's jobs and 10.1 percent of wages, the report said. "I think there's a growing realization of how important this industry is ... to Queens and to the city of New York," said John Jay College economist Marilyn Marks Rubin, the author of the report. "There's a need for a public policy to provide a positive framework in which this industry can grow." Air transportation employment, which includes airline- and airport-related positions, in Queens now stands at about 22,000 jobs, compared with 29,000 before the attacks. At the height of its losses, the industry had dropped 8,500 jobs - 32 percent of the borough's total job loss between 2000 and 2002, according to the report, presented at a Queens Economic Development Corp. breakfast at Kennedy Airport. The problem, experts say, is that while new jobs are being created again, they are often in lower-wage industries such as health care and restaurants. Pilots, flight attendants and other key air transportation personnel earn far higher salaries. Pilots, for example, earned $107.22 an hour in 2001, compared with waiters and waitresses, who earned $3.95 an hour, the report showed. Although pilots worked fewer hours a week, their salaries were still higher. "Airline pilots make more than doctors and lawyers, " said Spencer Ferdinand, the Queens Economic Development Corp. executive director. "When you take a look at Queens, which has two airports, those are the jobs we want here." There are signs the industry is on its way back. Employment has stabilized. And domestic passenger traffic at Kennedy has surpassed pre-Sept. 11 levels, reaching 1.6 billion passengers in July. Rubin and other experts attribute much of those gains to Forest Hills-based JetBlue Airways, which is continuing to expand its daily flight schedule. Internationally, however, Kennedy remains behind traffic levels from two years ago. While some of the ongoing difficulties may be attributable to Sept. 11, most are now a result of the overall economic downturn, which has slowed consumer spending and business travel, Rubin said. Copyright (c) 2003, Newsday, Inc. -------------------- This article originally appeared at: http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/transportation/nyc-bzecon013475830oct01,0,4656635.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-trans Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com