New York — Better surveillance systems, new routes in congested airspace and using multiple runways at the same time would help New York City's airports add flights and reduce delays, a task force said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey assembled the task force in July to address increases in airport delays this year that have triggered the worst U.S. air congestion since the federal government began keeping track in 1995.

The area's three airports are the most congested in the U.S. — fewer than 62 percent of flights arrived on time this year — and federal regulators are considering measures such as capping the number of flights, charging airlines more to land at busier times and auctioning takeoff and landing slots.

"The right answer to the problem is not to tell people don't come, not to say there is no room at the inn, but to find a way to accommodate people who want to come back and forth to New York," Anthony Shorris, the authority's executive director, said Friday.

"Rather than proposing new charges for passengers or new taxes on airlines or caps on the number of flights, we felt the more positive approach was to find ways to make the airport work better," he said.

The task force was made up of officials from the Port Authority, Federal Aviation Administration, ad state and local governments and representatives of the airline industry and other business leaders.

The panel made more than 100 recommendations, including short-term solutions, such as installing better surveillance systems to help planes move in and out of airports quickly and opening new routes in the most congested airspace, and long-term fixes such as improving navigation systems and developing ways to use multiple runways at the same time.

Other recommendations included improving customer service by creating an "early warning system" that could notify passengers about congestion before they leave their hotels and providing delayed travelers with information about alternate flights and ground transportation.

President Bush said in September that he would make reducing airline delays a priority of his administration after U.S. airspace congestion set a record.