Flights reduced at Newark airport: Check your status here

FAA temporarily reducing flights at Newark airport

A new strategy to try and stem the issues at Newark airport. The FAA announced it's cutting the number of flights landing and taking off at the airport. FOX 5 NY's Jessica Formoso has the story.

NEW JERSEY - The Federal Aviation Administration announced it's cutting the number of flights landing and taking off at Newark Liberty International Airport.

What we know:

The reduced flights mean the airlines that fly in and out of the airport will now have to limit their schedules.

Aerial view of United Airlines passenger planes docked in a terminal of Newark Airport in Newark, New Jersey, on May 11, 2024.

The interim rule will cap the number of arrivals and departures at 28 apiece per hour, which is in line with the limits imposed after about half a dozen controllers went on a 45-day trauma leave following the first outage on April 28.

'It's not going to be the silver bullet'

What they're saying:

"Let's face it, three to seven flights per hour, reducing that by three to seven flights per hour isn't going to avoid those mass backups and chaos in the terminals that we saw with all those passengers stranded for five or six hours," said aviation analyst, pilot and former FAA safety team representative, Kyle Bailey. "It's not going to be the silver bullet."

Newark airport delays continue

FOX 5 NY's Arthur Chi'en reports from Newark Liberty International Airport, which is now experiencing delays due to thunderstorms.

"United Airlines, which is the biggest customer of the airport, they really have to look at the alternatives, and one of the alternatives are other airports such as Newburgh, which is, you know, within an hour drive of most of United Airlines customers who are residing in northern New Jersey," Bailey said. "You have a sleepy airport up there with huge runways."

What's next:

In mid-June, the limit might be bumped up after a runway construction project largely wraps up, and the controllers on leave would be scheduled to return. After that, the FAA has said it might be able to increase the limit to 34 arrivals and 34 departures an hour, which would bring it closer to the 38 or 39 flights that typically took off and landed hourly before the problems.

The backstory:

Twice in the past month, the radar and communications systems that Philadelphia air traffic controllers who direct planes in and out of Newark rely on failed for a short time. That happened because the main line that carries the radar signal down from another FAA facility in New York failed, and the backup line didn’t work immediately.

The controllers were unable to see or communicate with the planes around Newark Airport for as long as 90 seconds on April 28 and May 9.

The lines – some of which were old copper wires – failed a third time on May 11, but the backup system worked, and the radar stayed online. The FAA said a fourth outage Monday knocked out radio communications for two seconds, but the radar stayed online.

After the initial outage, the already shorthanded control center in Philadelphia lost five to seven controllers to trauma leave. That left the airport unable to handle all the scheduled flights, leading to hundreds of cancellations and delays.