Newark International Airport (EWR) has been a mess for quite some time, as we know. The airport has a shortage of air traffic controllers, there’s currently runway construction, and there are all kinds of technological issues, which have caused radar and radio outages.
As a result, we’ve seen massive delays at the airport, and we’ve even seen airlines voluntarily reduce their schedules at the airport, in light of these issues. Well, there’s now an interesting update, as flight reductions at the airport have just been mandated.
In this post:
Newark Airport sees flight reductions for coming months
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has just issued an interim order, reducing the flight arrival and departure rate at Newark Airport. Under this order (which applies immediately), the maximum hourly rate of flights will be as follows:
- 28 flight arrivals and 28 flight departures, until construction on runway 4L/22R is complete; daily construction will end on June 15, 2025, but will continue on Saturdays until the end of the year
- Outside of the construction period, 34 flight arrivals and 34 flight departures, until October 25, 2025
Here’s how Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau describes this decision:
“Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays due to construction, staffing challenges, and recent equipment issues, which magnify as they spread through the National Airspace System.
The FAA states that it may change its target limits, if it determines capacity exists to accommodate more flights without a significant increase in delays, or that further flight reductions are necessary.
These seem like sensible capacity cuts
For context, before this whole mess in recent weeks, Newark saw 80 or more hourly takeoffs and landings over some peak periods. So these cuts are pretty drastic. With just 56 hourly takeoffs and landings, we’re seeing a roughly 30% decrease compared to peak numbers.
Then during periods without runway construction, we’re seeing a reduction of around 15% compared to peak numbers. Those seem like fair capacity decreases, given that the airport arguably had too much traffic before, even when things were functioning properly.
In particular, I think the limit on 68 arrivals and departures once runway construction is complete will really lead to much smoother operations. In recent days, we’ve seen cancelation rates at Newark improve, though we’re still consistently seeing delays with 20%+ of flights, which obviously isn’t ideal.
Bottom line
The FAA is finally mandating Newark flight cuts. Specifically, we’ll see a total of 56 hourly arrivals and departures while there’s runway construction, and when the construction is complete, we’ll see a total of 68 hourly arrivals and departures.
Obviously the flight cuts will be rough for some airlines, though on the plus side, this should reduce the number of delays at the airport. It’ll be interesting to see how the flight target evolves over time.
What do you make of these Newark flight cuts?
United will likely use the spare aircraft from these cancellations to add flights to IAD and ORD for connections. They may even proactively offer to rebook some passenger's itineraries who had a connecting itinerary through EWR through another hub in order to open up seats on EWR flights for point-to-point travel.
EWR - Enter With Regret (for not booking JFK or LGA) !
How will we know if our flight has been affected? Are they publishing a list of affected flights anywhere?
Currently booked next week with a one stop Business ticket on Swiss air out of JFK. Had an opportunity to switch to a nonstop flight out of Newark and didn't switch. For context, both airports/schedules are equally convenient to me and the points/cash differences were negligible. Saving ~4-5 hours for a nonstop route seems to offfset the risk of cancellation/radar nonsense to me, but maybe i'm being irrational.
United needs to restore their code share with amtrak and stop flying a dozen 50 seaters to DC and Boston
It is precisely because UA probably saw this coming that they added hourly flights on 50 seaters which can be easily reduced to many fewer A320/B737 flights.
They better hope that the summer thunderstorm season is mild if they want the FAA to establish a generous baseline.
My gf moved her flight today from UA at EWR to DL at JFK. DL will get more business into NYC since UA foolishly gave up JFK.
"Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays". So I guess having your flight cancelled so you can't get home is just a minor inconvenience? Newark Airport - where dreams are crushed, hopes are dashed, and chaos thrives.
UA will have to move more flights to IAD. But gate space is still tight.
As someone who lives in DC, I cannot wait for the day that Dulles' C&D terminal is replaced with something like its A&B terminal. C&D is on par with the worst terminals in America, while A&B is on par with the best terminals in America. It's incredible that they sit right next to each other.
Ben, if you haven’t, you might want to check out SNL’s skit on this, with Scarlett Johansson and Please Don’t Destroy. It’s pretty funny.
Fixed the short term but not the shortsighted.
As I have noted for months, the FAA recognizes that CO and UA have over scheduled the EWR hub for years. The FAA is going to reset the allowable capacity at EWR almost 10 years after the FAA removed EWR slot controls due to UA underutilization of its slots.
All airlines at EWR will reduce operations but UA will hear the biggest reduction
Uh, were you replaced by ChatGPT?
About time. Newark Airport was a sleepy, underutilized facility until the dawn of PeoplExpress, which, through various mergers, led to the establishment of the Continental Airlines hub at EWR from 1986, and with it, came substantial growth that would continue for the next 4 decades. Newark was Continental's most profitable hub, and is a key asset in United Airlines' network and its profitability, ever since it inherited and further expanded EWR following the UA/CO merger...
About time. Newark Airport was a sleepy, underutilized facility until the dawn of PeoplExpress, which, through various mergers, led to the establishment of the Continental Airlines hub at EWR from 1986, and with it, came substantial growth that would continue for the next 4 decades. Newark was Continental's most profitable hub, and is a key asset in United Airlines' network and its profitability, ever since it inherited and further expanded EWR following the UA/CO merger in 2010. The problem with EWR is geography and layout. The airport is hemmed in on all sides by urbanization. It can't be expanded. Its runway layout brings 3 of them in close proximity to each other. Aprons across the facility are used to park and service planes during downtime, with those jets then towed to their gates, creating traffic and congestion during peak departure and arrival times. The current runway construction adds to the misery. The facility has, ever since the Continental hub days, been prone to heavy delays and susceptible to weather and other challenges. The lifting of slot restrictions at EWR years ago was a huge mistake and now the over-worked air traffic controllers, the flying public, and the airlines that use Newark are all paying the price for lousy, under-invested infrastructure, which is a fixture all across the US and not isolated to EWR. The slot restrictions need to be (and likely will be) permanent.
It was a mistake for United to underutilize its slots when EWR was slot controlled
The FAA was not willing to allow United to protect its high market share by underutilizing public assets. That posture will not change
Yup, there isn't much you could do to expand capacity as it stands. About the only thing would be to tunnel the Turnpike and allow for another parallel runway. And then take over some more space and lengthen 11/29. To be clear, this would never happen in any of our lifetimes.
Or, expand Trenton and Stewart to allow for more flexibility in the region, attracting more service from the big players to serve them. Also,...
Yup, there isn't much you could do to expand capacity as it stands. About the only thing would be to tunnel the Turnpike and allow for another parallel runway. And then take over some more space and lengthen 11/29. To be clear, this would never happen in any of our lifetimes.
Or, expand Trenton and Stewart to allow for more flexibility in the region, attracting more service from the big players to serve them. Also, not going to happen.
Or, get some rail service to directly serve LGA, particularly from Penn Station. Also, probably not going to happen any time soon, but is the most viable.