US Wants Fewer Operations at LaGuardia

Now that New York airport slot auctions have been put on hold, the feds are trying to get airlines to voluntarily reduce their schedules at LaGuardia. Um, didn't they have this opportunity before?

American announced in June that it would be cutting its LaGuardia operation significantly, and it recommended to the feds that they permanently retire those slots to reduce congestion. It didn't happen, and American didn't keep all the cuts it had planned. If the government wanted to achieve this, they should have just taken American's offer in the first place instead of fighting for it now.