The Federal Aviation Administration will restrict flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), as travel woes at the busy New York space hub threaten to spill into the height summer time travel season.
The FAA on Tuesday introduced an interim order capping the variety of hourly flights at 56 (28 takeoffs and 28 landings) between now and mid-June, in hopes of lowering congestion and stemming a spate of flight delays.
The company would chill out these guidelines a bit, to 34 hourly departures and arrivals, after building wraps up on the airport’s busiest runway.
Weeks of frustration
This momentary order by the FAA comes after weeks of travel disruptions brought on by that renovation mission, mixed with the consequences of staffing shortages and technical outages to vital air site visitors management techniques.
In latest weeks, the Philadelphia air site visitors management middle that governs Newark’s airspace has skilled a number of communications outages that interrupted ATC contact with flying plane.
In the wake of 1 notably annoying outage final month, a handful of controllers went on federally-authorized go away.
Passengers encountered 1000’s of flight delays as a consequence, and a handful of airlines issued waivers to enable passengers to change their itineraries and fly out of different airports within the area.
United Airlines, which operates a serious hub at EWR, voluntarily eliminated 35 day by day spherical journeys from its schedule earlier this month — and urged the FAA to require limits from its rivals, too, arguing it had shouldered the burden of lowering flights to make air site visitors extra manageable.
Last week, the FAA met with seven main airlines that fly out of the New Jersey hub to focus on broader schedule reductions.
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For perspective, Newark can ordinarily accommodate a most of 77 mixed takeoffs and landings, federal information present.
With airlines now restricted to 56 complete flights between now and June 15, the FAA-ordered cuts would signify about 27% fewer operations hourly.
Help! Here’s what to do in case your flight is canceled or delayed
After day by day runway work ends on June 15, these limits would rise to a most 68 hourly flights — down about 12% from extraordinary travel intervals — by way of October.
Those limits might trigger airlines to cancel flights, or shift their timing off of peak hours of the day.
United had praised the proposed limits late final week.
“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,” the Chicago-based service mentioned in an announcement Friday.
Slow enhancements
Operations at Newark have improved a bit in latest days.
As of 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday, slightly below a fifth of flights headed to EWR have been delayed, in accordance to FlightAware. That’s an enchancment from the 36% of inbound Newark flights that noticed a delay on Sunday, which was one of many busiest travel days to date in 2025.
Around half of flights obtained to the gate late on numerous days earlier this month.
In addition to the bounds on takeoffs and landings, the FAA has deployed expertise patches aimed at lowering future outages whereas the Trump administration seeks funding from Congress on a bigger overhaul to the growing older air site visitors management infrastructure.
What to do in the event you’re flying out of Newark
In the meantime, with the Memorial Day weekend travel rush simply days away, passengers scheduled to fly by way of Newark have choices.
Travel advisories
United has prolonged its EWR travel advisory by way of May 23. Passengers who bought their ticket on or earlier than May 4 can re-schedule with no change price or fare distinction by way of one other connecting airport.
They also can re-book to flights in or out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) or Phildelphia International Airport (PHL).
JetBlue passengers also can re-book with out change charges or fare variations by way of May 31, together with flying out of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), the place the service has its largest presence within the New York area.
Delta Air Lines additionally issued its personal travel advisory in latest days, which runs by way of June 15 — although prospects have to make modifications by May 24.
Passengers rights
Keep in thoughts, passengers with a canceled, considerably delayed or modified itinerary can declare a full refund in the event that they determine not to travel, and do not settle for rebooking, underneath U.S. Department of Transportation coverage. The refund guidelines would additionally apply to passengers who decide to rebook themselves on one other airline, take the prepare or drive to their vacation spot as an alternative of accepting flights from their unique airline.
But airlines are much less possible to compensate stranded passengers for lodge stays, meals or floor transportation when the issues are deemed exterior their management.
That mentioned, vacationers who e-book with a bank card that has travel insurance coverage protections might find a way to recoup a few of these surprising bills.
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