Flight delays aren’t only causing headaches – they’re hurting our wallets.

“In 2007, New Yorkers took a $5 billion punch in the gut from flight delays,” Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday.

Based on a new government report, Schumer estimates that delays at New York’s airports – among the nation’s most congested – cost the New York City area’s economy $4.9 billion per year.

Schumer proposed three steps to cut delays: permanently opening military airspace to commercial flights, giving more power and money to the FAA’s newly created “Air Czar” for New York, and creating an FAA/airline task force to find solutions to the congestion nightmare.

“The FAA needs to bring these flight delays under control and give travelers some long overdue relief,” he said.