United Airlines Holdings Inc. will cut 35 daily round trips at Newark Liberty International Airport after Federal Aviation Administration technology failures and an air traffic controller shortage snarled flights for a full week.
The “long-simmering FAA challenges boiled over this week,” United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby said in a letter to customers Friday, resulting in cancellations, delays and stranded passengers. At the same time, more than 20% of Newark controllers walked off the job, he said. In a Friday statement, the FAA blamed runway construction and staffing issues for the problems.
United will begin eliminating the flights this weekend, Kirby said.
The move marks an escalation of Kirby’s longstanding criticism of the FAA’s handling of operations at Newark, the airline’s largest hub for international departures and a primary gateway for domestic flights. Failures of aging air-traffic equipment and persistent staffing challenges have caused numerous disruptions to flights there in recent years, and delays or cancellations can ripple across United’s entire network.
Kirby called for the US Transportation Department to impose harsher slot restrictions at the airport, a designation that would further limit the number of flights allowed.
“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 the letter.