Feds Issue Interim Order Reducing Maximum Hourly Arrivals and Departures

After a ‘telecommunications issue’ with Philadelphia TRACON brought yet another ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), the FAA decided that it would be best to temporarily limit hourly arrivals and departures. This will last through planned runway construction.

The FAA’s Philadelphia-based TRACON facility, which manages airspace for Newark, has experienced an unfortunate string of equipment failures in the last month. 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 that led to the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and even sent five air traffic controllers into trauma leave.

There was a second outage on May 11, causing a 45-minute ground stop for inbound Newark flights. Operations were then able to resume, but not before 67 flights were delayed and 79 canceled. The FAA confirmed that the disruption stemmed from a telecommunications issue and said traffic was slowed “while we ensured redundancies were working as designed.”

Shortly after, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated that he would be meeting with all airlines operating out of Newark to come up with a capacity reduction plan. His goal sounded simple: to “have a number of flights that if you book your flight, you know it’s going to fly.”

The agency is aware that Newark is in desperate need of a tech upgrade and is currently working on a new communications line connecting Newark directly to the Philadelphia TRACON that is slated for completion by the end of summer. In the meantime, however, the airport will be forced to limit its capacity.

The FAA’s interim order limits maximum hourly operations to 28 arrivals and 28 departures while construction of Runway 4L/22R is underway. Daily runway work will end on June 15, 2025, continuing on Saturdays for the rest of 2025. There will then be 34 arrivals and departures through October 25, 2025.

“Our goal is to relieve the substantial inconvenience to the traveling public from excessive flight delays due to construction, staffing challenges, and recent equipment issues, which magnify as they spread through the National Airspace System,” explained Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau.

FMI: www.newarkairport.com