[Update May 22, 11:20am ET: The FAA on May 20 issued an interim order effective immediately to reduce flight movements at Newark to 56 per hour through June 15, and then 68 movements per hour until Oct. 25, 2025.]
U.S. aviation safety regulators have proposed temporary
limits on the number of flights allowed to arrive at Newark Liberty
International Airport following two system-outage incidents that affected air
traffic controllers, Bloomberg
reported.
The limit would allow no more than 28 arrivals per hour, or
56 movements including departures, and follows telecommunications
outages that affected
Newark's air traffic controllers and caused several disruptions since April
28.
The proposal also comes after the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration held a scheduling reduction meeting for Newark last week which
started May 14 and lasted three days. In an announcement of the meeting, the
FAA proposed limiting the airport's movements to 56 per hour through June 15,
2025, the projected end date for daily runway construction at Newark, which
also is contributing to the delays.
After that date, the agency would allow 34 arrivals and 34
departures per hour through Oct. 25 when construction isn't underway, according
to Bloomberg. After June 15, the airport plans to continue construction on
Saturdays through the end of the year.
The FAA did not immediately respond to multiple requests for
comment.
"Reducing the number of flights scheduled at Newark
will help ensure that we can safely and reliably operate the flights that
remain on the schedule," United Airlines said Friday in a statement.
"For the first quarter of 2025, Newark was the most on-time airport in the
New York area, and we are confident that the steps taken by [U.S. Department of
Transportation] Secretary [Sean] Duffy, including his leadership on matching
the airport's capacity to its operational limitations, will have it back
operating reliably soon."
Newark is one of United's hubs, and the carrier has been
vocal about fixing the problems at the airport, including advocating that
Newark be returned to a Level
3 slot-controlled airport. United CEO Scott Kirby on May 2 also announced
the carrier would reduce its schedule by 35
flights per day because of the persistent delays.
Duffy on May 8 unveiled a new
air traffic control system plan to overhaul the entire system, noting that
Newark would be a priority. He also said during a May 12 press conference that
the most serious Newark outage lasted 30 seconds, and then it took the system
60 seconds to reboot itself. The FAA did a software patch and by the time the
third outage occurred on May 11, the fix had worked, the redundant line stood
up, and the controllers remained in contact with all aircraft for which they
were responsible.
In addition, the FAA has replaced copper lines with fiber
lines at Newark, John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport
over the past few weeks, Duffy added. They currently are being tested and are
projected to be operational by the end of May.
As for the proposed limit on hourly movements at Newark, a
final decision is not expected until May 28, when a public comment period is
scheduled to end, according to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines on May 19 issued a waiver for
customers who may be impacted by the ongoing staffing and technical issues with
Newark. The exception is for customers with tickets issued on or before May 19,
2025, with impacted travel dates between May 17 and June 15, 2025, with travel
to, from or through Newark to be rebooked to the following airports: Newark, Philadelphia
and New York's JFK, LaGuardia and Westchester County airports. Tickets must be
reissued on or before May 24, 2025.
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