FAA to Continue Discussions With Airlines on Reducing Newark Flights

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The airport has recently experienced critical equipment malfunctions due to staffing shortages, runway construction, and aging infrastructure.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is hosting a third day of discussions with airlines on Friday over efforts to reduce air traffic at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, according to officials.

Thursday was the second day of talks between major airlines and the nation’s regulatory body for air travel, which included four rounds of individual sit-downs with various companies to discuss specific times to cut flights at Newark.

The airport has faced a series of critical equipment malfunctions over the past several weeks, due to staffing shortages, runway construction, and aging infrastructure.

Those failures caused Newark’s air traffic control to lose contact with pilots in three separate incidents since April 28, when the first communication blackout occurred.

Since then, United Airlines has temporarily reduced flights in and out of the busy airport, and the FAA has slowed air traffic. On Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that the reduction in flights could persist for several more weeks while the FAA works on permanent fixes to the problems that led to the blackouts.

The agency decided to host these discussions with airline representatives this week to negotiate long-term reductions in operations at the Newark airport, confirming in a Thursday statement that the talks would continue for a third day.

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United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Spirit Airlines, and Allegiant Air participated in the talks, the FAA said.

While progress is being made, the agency has yet to reach a final agreement on reducing traffic during busy flying times, airline officials said.

Additionally, Canadian airlines and major cargo carriers may join on Friday, and airlines may be asked to remove or adjust flights during congested times, they added.

When the FAA announced the first round of talks for Wednesday, it said Newark “is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations.”

Among the FAA’s proposals is a call to have no more than 56 flights per hour entering or leaving the airport during construction work on a critical runway, which will stay closed until mid-June.

Construction will resume on that runway during the weekends from September through the end of December, and the FAA proposed no more than 68 flights per hour “outside of construction period[s]” until Oct. 25.

The agency is also suggesting to target flight cuts between 6 a.m. and 10:59 p.m. local time, and hopes the slowdown will “reduce overscheduling, flight delays, and cancellations to an acceptable level.”

Duffy said it was the first flight delay reduction meeting in more than 20 years.

After it previously reduced flights in and out of Newark, United Airlines said on Tuesday that it may make further cuts to air traffic.

Newark’s communication failures were in part affected by an FAA decision last year to move control of its airspace to a facility in Philadelphia after the control hub in New York faced persistent staffing issues.

There’s also a roughly 3,500 shortage of air traffic controllers at the FAA, which was worsened when several took trauma leave following the first equipment outage on April 28.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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