United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby announced Friday that the airline will slash about 35 flights per day—roughly 10% of its Newark schedule—starting this weekend, citing chronic issues with government equipment failures and air traffic controller shortages.
This week alone, United faced widespread delays, cancellations, and flight diversions at its busy Newark hub, where it operates around 328 daily flights.
“FAA air traffic controllers depend on technology that broke down at Newark, causing dozens of flight diversions, hundreds of delays and cancellations, and most regrettably, severe disruptions for thousands of travelers,” Kirby wrote in an email to customers. He added that the situation worsened when over 20% of Newark’s FAA controllers left their posts.
Neither the air traffic controllers’ union nor the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided comment on the matter.
In an effort to ease congestion and staffing strain, the FAA last year transferred oversight of Newark’s airspace to Philadelphia. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who visited Philadelphia’s FAA radar center on Friday, said, “The technology we’re relying on is outdated, and that’s a key reason behind the outages and delays we’re witnessing at Newark.”
On Thursday, Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau confirmed that an agency team is investigating the Newark disruptions. “We must ensure controllers have the right tools and that we are fully staffed,” he said.
Amid the crisis, major U.S. carriers have urged the FAA to extend reduced minimum flight requirements at crowded New York City-area airports through October 2027, pointing to the severe controller shortage.
Without the FAA’s waiver, airlines risk losing valuable takeoff and landing slots if they don’t use them at least 80% of the time. The waiver allows carriers to temporarily cut flights without forfeiting these slots.
The FAA is currently about 3,500 controllers short of its staffing goals, forcing many to work overtime and extended weeks.
United has faced ongoing troubles at Newark, having already scaled back flights before Friday’s announcement. In November, the airline said it had to cut operations there on about a dozen days due to thin FAA staffing, affecting more than 343,000 passengers.