• Trouble at Newark Airport

    From Aviation HQ@2:292/854 to All on Sun Jul 25 12:53:44 2021
    United Airlines wants the US government to manage the crowds at Newark Liberty International Airport. Due to repairs to a runway, there have been long aircraft traffic jams since July 6.

    United boss Scott Kirby has written a letter asking Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and the chief of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Steve Dickson, to "temporarily and proportionally reduce the number of flights per hour," Reuters news agency reported.

    Kirby believes United has been disproportionately hit in the number of flights it has had to cancel at Newark. Nevertheless, he does not threaten to transfer flights to other New York airports such as JFK or LaGuardia.

    Newark was in the top 15 busiest US airports last year, in terms of passengers. Currently, the airport is struggling with serious flight delays, long taxi times and many cancellations. United uses the New Jersey airport as its hub, accounting for about 65 percent of all flights to Newark.

    In the letter, Kirby writes that all airlines together had to cancel "more than 100 flights a day" in July, which puts a lot of pressure on employees and schedules. United is now canceling 70 of Newark's 240 daily flights. Before the pandemic, that was about 430 flights a day.

    The FAA is "studying the letter and will address United with an immediate response."

    --- DB4 - Jul 07 2021
    * Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)