The Federal Aviation Administration will restrict flights at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR), as journey woes on the busy New York space hub threaten to spill into the height summer season journey 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 development wraps up on the airport’s busiest runway.
Weeks of frustration
This short-term order by the FAA comes after weeks of journey disruptions attributable to that renovation undertaking, mixed with the consequences of staffing shortages and technical outages to crucial air visitors management programs.
In latest weeks, the Philadelphia air visitors management heart that governs Newark’s airspace has skilled a number of communications outages that interrupted ATC contact with flying plane.
Within the wake of 1 notably anxious outage final month, a handful of controllers went on federally-authorized go away.
Passengers encountered hundreds of flight delays because of this, and a handful of airways issued waivers to permit passengers to vary their itineraries and fly out of different airports within the area.
United Airways, which operates a significant hub at EWR, voluntarily eliminated 35 every day spherical journeys from its schedule earlier this month — and urged the FAA to require limits from its opponents, too, arguing it had shouldered the burden of lowering flights to make air visitors extra manageable.
Final week, the FAA met with seven main airways that fly out of the New Jersey hub to debate broader schedule reductions.
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For perspective, Newark can ordinarily accommodate a most of 77 mixed takeoffs and landings, federal data present.
With airways now restricted to 56 whole flights between now and June 15, the FAA-ordered cuts would characterize about 27% fewer operations hourly.
Assist! This is what to do in case your flight is canceled or delayed
After every day runway work ends on June 15, these limits would rise to a most 68 hourly flights — down about 12% from peculiar journey durations — by means of October.
These limits might trigger airways to cancel flights, or shift their timing off of peak hours of the day.
United had praised the proposed limits late final week.
“Lowering the variety of flights scheduled at Newark will assist make sure that we will safely and reliably function the flights that stay on the schedule,” the Chicago-based service mentioned in an announcement Friday.
Gradual 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 had been delayed, in line with FlightAware. That is an enchancment from the 36% of inbound Newark flights that noticed a delay on Sunday, which was one of many busiest journey days to date in 2025.
Round half of flights acquired to the gate late on a variety of days earlier this month.
Along with the bounds on takeoffs and landings, the FAA has deployed expertise patches aimed toward lowering future outages whereas the Trump administration seeks funding from Congress on a bigger overhaul to the ageing air visitors management infrastructure.
What to do when you’re flying out of Newark
Within the meantime, with the Memorial Day weekend journey rush simply days away, passengers scheduled to fly by means of Newark have choices.
Journey advisories
United has prolonged its EWR journey advisory by means of Could 23. Passengers who bought their ticket on or earlier than Could 4 can re-schedule with no change price or fare distinction by means of one other connecting airport.
They will additionally re-book to flights in or out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) or Phildelphia Worldwide Airport (PHL).
JetBlue passengers can even re-book with out change charges or fare variations by means of Could 31, together with flying out of New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), the place the service has its largest presence within the New York area.
Delta Air Strains additionally issued its personal journey advisory in latest days, which runs by means of June 15 — although prospects should make adjustments by Could 24.
Passengers rights
Remember, passengers with a canceled, considerably delayed or modified itinerary can declare a full refund in the event that they resolve to not journey, and do not settle for rebooking, below U.S. Division of Transportation coverage. The refund guidelines would additionally apply to passengers who decide to rebook themselves on one other airline, take the practice or drive to their vacation spot as a substitute of accepting flights from their authentic airline.
However airways are much less prone to compensate stranded passengers for lodge stays, meals or floor transportation when the issues are deemed exterior their management.
That mentioned, vacationers who guide with a bank card that has journey insurance coverage protections might be able to recoup a few of these surprising bills.
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