Saturday, May 3, 2025 3:22AM
Josh Einiger has the latest details.
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — United Airlines is canceling 35 round-trip flights from its Newark Airport schedule per day starting this weekend amid continued air traffic control staffing issues and construction on one of the runways.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says more than 20% of Newark’s air traffic controllers “walked off the job” this week, forcing the airline to indefinitely remove nearly three dozen round-trip flights from its Newark schedule per day.
“It’s disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers,” Kirby said in a letter.
It comes after several days of travel nightmares — and experts warn it’s only going to get worse as the summer travel season heats up.
By Friday afternoon, 19 flights were canceled and 297 experienced delays.
Newark officials say it is due to air traffic control staffing issues and construction on one of the runways.
At times, runway construction has even had the airport down to just one takeoff and landing location. The airport said one of its runways will be fully closed until mid-June while it is rehabilitated as part of a $121 million project.
A third runway is available but under certain wind conditions it is unsafe to use. That is what happened Thursday when nearly 20% of flights leaving Newark were canceled and more than 40% of the flights were delayed.
Departures weren’t the only issue as the FAA also slowed arrivals to Newark Airport. At one point, the average delay for arriving flights was 381 minutes — or more than five hours.
It comes after Monday’s ground stop was also the result of equipment issues. They happened at the FAA airspace operations center in Philadelphia but added to the delays in Newark already caused by runway construction and air traffic controller staffing.
Controllers for Newark used to be based on Long Island before the FAA forced them to transfer. After two system outages just this week, many put in for medical leave, which led to the staffing crisis on Friday.
With fewer controllers, the FAA is forced to throttle the number of flights in the air. Far fewer are allowed than the airlines have scheduled.
Experts say the issues are expected to last through the busy summer travel season.
“It really can’t be over-emphasized how important the New York air traffic is to the rest of the world in terms of keeping everything flowing,” said ABC News contributor and aviation analyst John Nance. “When a runway goes down that’s a very important change. It may take some time to deal with, and certainly the ripple effect will be all over the country.”
Department of Transportation officials this week outlined a plan to widen the training pipeline for new air traffic controllers. The agency is offering increased salaries and bonuses to delay retirement.
On Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy showed up at the Philadelphia facility at the center of the mayhem.
“The system is 25, 30 years old,” he said. “We use floppy disks! We use copper wires! Are the controllers frustrated? They’re frustrated. They’re angry about having to use this old equipment and they should be. They should be angry. I told them that help is on the way.”
For now, Newark put out a travel advisory, urging passengers to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
———-
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a tip or story idea to Eyewitness News
Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.
