United Airlines Holdings expects flight reductions at Newark airport to linger through summer and into fall as the crucial travel hub struggles to recover from air traffic control glitches that have already disrupted hundreds of flights.
“Hopefully, as we’ll get through the summer and fall, when staffing with the FAA improves, we can increase the number,” United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said at an event Tuesday in New York, referring to the Federal Aviation Administration. “The most important thing,” Nocella said, is ensuring that each flight is “going to go, and it’s going to go on time.”
United has already cut 35 daily round trips at Newark Liberty International Airport in response to days of disruption at the airport following an April 28 technology outage. Problems at Newark, United’s biggest hub for international departures and a main gateway for its domestic routes, can cascade across the carrier’s network. United accounts for about 68% of flights at the airport.
Airlines operating at Newark are set to meet Wednesday with officials from the FAA to discuss new flight limits. Nocella said he anticipates “a few” more cancellations after those discussions, but said they would not be in “large numbers.”
Newark has been the focus of airlines and federal officials after telecommunications failures at a Philadelphia facility that controls flights into and out of the airport failed twice in recent weeks, leaving controllers unable to communicate with pilots or see aircraft on radar. The breakdowns put a spotlight on air traffic control staffing shortages and aging technology that have led to weeks of delayed and canceled flights at the airport.
In a notice announcing the Wednesday meeting, the FAA proposed limiting hourly flights to 56 while construction on one of the airport’s runways is underway. Outside the construction period, the FAA is proposing a cap of 68 operations per hour through Oct. 25.
“The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations,” the FAA said in the notice.
Prior to the recent disruptions, airlines routinely operated more than 70 flights per hour during peak periods.
In a message to customers on Monday, United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said all flights at Newark “are absolutely safe.”
