Arrivals and Departure Limits Could Stay at 36 Each Until Next October

The FAA is on a mission to keep operations under control at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) by extending its arrival and departure cap, first issued in late May, through October 24, 2026. This aims to alleviate tech and staffing challenges that have sparked multiple concerning, though luckily not catastrophic, incidents.

The agency first decided to temporarily limit Newark’s hourly arrivals and departures after a string of telecommunications issues with Philadelphia TRACON. On May 9 at 3:55 am, the radar at that facility went dark for 90 seconds. This brought back memories of an eerily similar issue to one on April 28, which had a much more brutal impact: the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and five air traffic controllers needing trauma leave.

This became an unfortunate trend for Newark, with another outage on May 11 bringing the FAA to its breaking point. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy quickly got into a room with all airlines operating out of Newark to come up with a capacity reduction plan, as the new communications line between Newark and the Philly TRACON was nowhere near complete at the time.

The original order limited hourly operations to a maximum of 28 arrivals and 28 departures through the construction of Runway 4L/22R. The plan was to allow 34 arrivals and 34 departures until October 25, 2025, and hope tech and staffing issues had been resolved to resume business as usual before the new year.

Now, the FAA isn’t feeling as optimistic. Despite the Newark-to-Philadelphia fiber optic line being operational, the agency is asking to extend the operational limit. This would cap arrivals and departures on construction weekends from September 1 through December 31, 2025, to 28 each per hour. Outside of construction, beginning on October 26, the limit would sit at 36 each per hour until October 24, 2026.

“The U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA will continue working with all stakeholders to ensure travel is a safe, efficient, and functional for passengers and air carriers,” the agency said, adding that questions, comments, and concerns should be submitted by August 15.

FMI: www.faa.gov