(Bloomberg) — Airline chief executives are poised to work with US aviation officials to throttle back more Newark airport flights, a fix that may ease short-term safety concerns but won’t solve long-term challenges.
The move comes as a key facility that routes planes into Newark suffered a second radar failure in as many weeks, making it the face of a beleaguered air-traffic system, with hundreds of flights delayed or canceled and operations snarled for days.
The Federal Aviation Administration said talks will be held with airline officials on May 14 in Washington. The FAA said it plans to propose limiting the airport to no more than 56 total operations per hour. “The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations,” the FAA said in a notice on Friday.
Aviation officials and legislators are racing to address a crisis that’s been years in the making, thanks to outdated technology and staffing shortages. Rattled travelers meanwhile are avoiding Newark altogether. And the airline CEOs? They’ve had it.
No airline executive has more at stake at Newark than Scott Kirby.
Kirby, whose United Airlines Holdings Inc. operates 68% of the airport’s flights, is fed up with what he calls an untenable situation at a crucial transportation hub, with too much traffic and not enough support from the FAA.
The CEO has called out the shortage of air traffic controllers and aging technology repeatedly over the years, saying in 2023 that “the FAA frankly failed us.” He faulted the agency’s “ancient facilities” at an investor conference in March of this year and separately said that the network “fails frequently.” In a memo this week, Kirby said it’s long past time for the FAA to fix the situation in Newark.
The situation came to a head after an alarming incident on April 28 in which the Philadelphia air-traffic control facility that guides flights into Newark’s airspace lost radar and radio contact for 90 seconds. A second 90-second outage hit controllers there early Friday morning. No one was injured, but the fallout for United customers has been severe.
From April 26 through May 6, more than 226,500 of the carrier’s passengers had their trips disrupted by flight cancellations, delays or diversions at Newark due to air-traffic control staffing and airspace restrictions, the airline said. Travelers on 1,155 delayed flights collectively spent more than 296,000 hours waiting, equal to nearly 34 years.
“Newark is just a mess,” said George Ferguson, a Bloomberg Intelligence airline analyst. Kirby would “like to get Newark operating better because it’s an important hub for them.”
The airline said it would voluntarily cull 35 daily flights due to the latest upheaval, after prior cuts related to controller shortages and construction work at the airport. With 293 daily departures from Newark, the current operations are down 33% from historical levels.
The latest planned cuts over a 60-day period could result in a reduction of about 0.5% of United’s expected second-quarter capacity, lowering revenue by $90 million and profit by about $9 million, according to Ferguson’s estimates.
“United pays a price for the weakness in air traffic control more than any other airline,” said Samuel Engel, a senior vice president at ICF and former head of the consultant’s aviation group. “It’s partly because of Newark and partly because of the way Newark is so critical to their system and critical to their revenue.”
Few airlines are more closely associated with a single major airport than United is with Newark. It’s the carrier’s largest international hub and a key feeder to flights across the nation, as well as its primary connection to New York City.
United ended its small operation at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2022 after failing to reach an agreement with the FAA to expand operations there. Ongoing problems at Newark could raise questions about whether the carrier would seek a return to JFK.
Some travelers in New Jersey have been rebooking flights to avoid the delays and cancellations. Kirby’s critical comments could resonate with customers by shifting blame away from the airline.
“At the end of the day it is about trust building even if it means short-term cancellations,” said Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants Inc.
The air-traffic control issues are exacerbating an already-difficult situation for airlines this year. Domestic demand has slowed considerably amid economic worries and high-profile mishaps have made some people worry if it’s even still safe to fly.
United’s latest round of flight cuts are being decided on a rolling basis, depending on factors such as when customers can most easily be moved to other flights. In other cases, two flights are being combined into one or a larger aircraft is being substituted for a smaller one. The airline says it’s trying to disrupt the least number of people with the changes.
Around the middle of this month, United will decide on specific routes to be suspended at least through May 25.
Kirby, who declined to comment for this article, said in the memo this week that the FAA should take steps including limiting flights at Newark and increasing air traffic control staffing. He has expressed support for changes sought by US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to the nation’s air traffic system.
On Thursday, Kirby joined his counterparts from Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and several other carriers to back the administration’s announcement of upgrades.
Duffy’s proposal, which would revamp the nation’s air traffic system with fiber, wireless and satellite systems over three years, didn’t come with a specific funding request, though he has said it would require tens of billions of dollars.
The FAA is currently about 3,000 air-traffic controllers short of desired levels and some existing employees say they are at a breaking point. Anecdotes of copper wire, floppy disks and other fossil technology still in everyday use at control towers are commonplace.
Kirby is walking a fine line between calling out the FAA over Newark and not ruffling feathers with President Donald Trump’s administration, according to Schiffer.
“He has to balance both, and also show the public he’s being a steward of their safety,” Schiffer said. “It’s not an easy thing.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York was much more direct in his assessment of the Trump administration’s approach so far.
“The back up system that is not working must be fixed. Now,” Schumer said in a statement Friday. “This is an air travel safety emergency that requires immediate and decisive action, not a promise of a big, beautiful unfunded overhaul that will take years to begin to implement. The skies over New York City are some of the busiest in the world. This cannot happen again.”
–With assistance from Allyson Versprille.
(Adds context on outdated technology in 24th paragraph.)
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