United Airlines said Tuesday that its operations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) have returned to normal after a tumultuous period. Consistent flight disruptions began in the spring and lasted through much of the summer.
Construction, staffing shortages, and air traffic control outages earlier this year caused widespread delays and canceled flights. In April, air traffic controllers briefly lost radar and radio contact with planes approaching or departing EWR. The disruptions led to a steep drop in bookings, with flights operating about 15 percent below capacity.
United executives credited improvements at the airport to better staffing, upgraded communication systems, and limits on flight slots imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA temporarily capped flights at 68 per hour to ease congestion. They plan to maintain a limit of 72 flights per hour through next summer.
“It’s no secret to the people in this room that Newark faced challenges earlier this year, but despite those challenges, I knew in my heart that this team was going to rise to the occasion,” said John Gooda, United’s vice president of the Newark hub.
Despite delays that started in the spring, the summer was still quite busy at EWR. Chief Operations Officer Toby Enqvist noted that six million passengers traveled on time through Newark this summer, the airline’s busiest on record.
Weekday runway construction ended in June and new fiber optic cables were installed to improve communications reliability and radar. United Airlines also plans to hire 2,500 additional staff at the airport in an effort to expand services with new domestic and international flights.
Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark praised the turnaround.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.