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.
RELATED: Another Newark Outage, FAA Calls for Delay Reduction Meeting
Recent Comments