Rothman Applauds Corzine, Lautenberg For Supporting His
Legislation To Ban All Scheduled Charter Service At Teterboro
New Jersey Senators Call On Top Senate Aviation
Leader To Support Congressman's Measure

     Washington, DC - With House and Senate aviation leaders set to develop a final version of the Aviation Authorization bill, Congressman Steve Rothman (D-NJ9) today applauded U.S. Senators Jon S. Corzine (D-NJ) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for supporting the language that he authored and had included in the House version of the bill that bans all scheduled charter service at Teterboro Airport. That measure would effectively prevent Indigo Airlines or any copycats from ever operating scheduled charter service at Teterboro Airport again. While both the House and Senate passed the Aviation Authorization bill last week, only the House version included the Rothman-authored scheduled charter ban.

     Corzine and Lautenberg wrote a letter late yesterday to U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC), who is the highest ranking Senate Democrat on the conference committee that will debate the differences, urging him to support Rothman's language and ensure that it remains in the final version of the bill. Securing Hollings' support of Rothman's measure is considered important to having the scheduled charter ban at Teterboro Airport survive the conference committee and become law.

     "I am grateful to my friends, New Jersey's two outstanding U.S. Senators Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, who understand the threat that scheduled charter service poses at Teterboro Airport. They are working hard on the Senate side to ensure that the language I authored in the House to ban such operations will make it through the conference committee and become law to ensure that the quality of life for the people of Northern New Jersey is protected," Rothman said.

     In their letter to Hollings, Corzine and Lautenberg wrote, "To ensure that Teterboro Airport remains a general aviation reliever airport, the House of Representatives has included Section 443 [Rothman's language] in its version of H.R. 2115 [the Aviation Authorization bill] that would close the loophole this airline [Indigo] used to operate under the guise of a public charter at the facility. Because we agree that the current nature of Teterboro Airport should be maintained…we respectfully request that you retain the language of Section 443 in the House version of H.R. 2115 as conferees develop a conference report on the bill."

     Rothman has led the charge against scheduled charter service at Teterboro Airport because such operations threaten to change the character of the general aviation reliever facility and because passengers on those flights are not subject to the thorough security checks mandated at major airports across the country.

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