US aviation safety regulators will allow fewer flights at Newark airport after technology outages and a staffing crunch fueled a surge in delays and cancellations in recent weeks.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it will permit a maximum of 28 arrivals per hour at the busy hub through June 15, when daily construction on one of the airport’s runways will end. That rate would also apply to Saturdays through the end of the year. Outside of that construction period, 34 planes would be allowed to land each hour until Oct. 25, the agency said in a statement outlining an interim order released on Tuesday. The new limits take effect immediately, the FAA said.
“Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays,” Chris Rocheleau, the FAA’s acting administrator, said in the statement.
Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at Newark Liberty International Airport following an April 28 radio and radar outage at a facility in Philadelphia that guides planes to and from the hub. The incident and a similar episode earlier this month left air traffic controllers unable to communicate with or see aircraft flying in the congested airspace for about 90 seconds.
The order sets in motion flight restrictions that the FAA proposed on Friday following three days of meetings with airlines. The agency imposed the additional reductions after cutbacks offered by carriers during the meetings fell short of the agency’s plan. The FAA said it will work with foreign carriers that operate at Newark and want to offer voluntary flight cuts.
United Airlines Holdings Inc. earlier this month voluntarily trimmed 35 daily round trips from its Newark schedule. After the cuts, it translates into a schedule of 370 daily flights during the bulk of the summer, down from 395, a 7% reduction year-on-year. The airline is operating 290 daily flights while one of the airport’s runway is upgraded.
When including an equivalent number of departures, flights at the airport will be limited to 56 per hour during runway construction. That compares to more than 70 hourly flights the airport had been handling during peak periods before the FAA began slowing traffic due to technology and staffing issues.
The reductions at Newark could be especially meaningful for United, by far the largest operator at the airport. The hub is the carrier’s biggest for international flights, and a main gateway for its domestic network.
“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 said in a statement.
Spirit Aviation Holdings Inc., the second largest airline operator at Newark, said in a statement that it’ll reduce its flying schedules from New Jersey’s busiest airport by 16% through late October, extending an earlier reduction since April.
The FAA has also announced steps to bolster operations at Newark, including upgrading old copper wire infrastructure with fiber-optic technology, as well as plans to boost staffing.
The agency previously said it would finalize flight restrictions at the airport no sooner than May 28, when a public comment period concludes. –BLOOMBERG
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