The Federal Aviation Administration - FAA will hold a meeting on May 14, 2025, about potential flight limitations at New York Newark, and has issued an open invitation to airlines to attend. The FAA says the limitations would help reduce overscheduling and flight delays during peak hours.

The agency says the airport continues to experience operational delays stemming from the daily closure of a runway due to construction, air traffic controller staffing shortages, historical congestion challenges, and "antiquated equipment and connections."

"The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations," the FAA's May 9 meeting notice reads. "Based on FAA's analysis of the data, FAA will propose an hourly arrival rate of no more than 28 operations, with a corresponding departure rate of 28 operations, resulting in no more than 56 total operations per hour during the remainder of the [runway] construction period."

Construction work on Runway 4L/22R is due to last until the end of 2025. Transportation Secretary Duffy and acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau directed the FAA to hold the meeting.

The airport made headlines in late April when its air traffic control systems crashed for around 90 seconds, leaving controllers unable to see or communicate with aircraft. Last week, there was a second telecommunications issue that required aircraft in and around the airport to slow down until the matter was resolved.

"Recent glitches in our air traffic control show why we can’t ignore this ageing system any longer," Duffy said on X on May 12, adding that much of the air traffic control system equipment needed to be ripped out and "sent to the Smithsonian."

In a May 8 employee memo, United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) CEO Scott Kirby said there are more flights scheduled at Newark than the FAA can handle. He proposes limiting the airport to 48 movements per hour while the runway construction continues, returning it to a Level 3 slot-controlled airport, modernising the air traffic control system, and ensuring the Newark air traffic control centre remains fully staffed.

"Every other large capacity-constrained airport in the world uses slots to make sure that the number of scheduled flights in any given hour does not exceed the airport’s maximum capacity," he said. "And Newark is the only large airport in the world that no longer has this basic common-sense rule."

United Airlines is Newark's dominant carrier. However, it has recently cut around 35 daily flights to and from the airport "to relieve pressure and give the FAA more flexibility to catch up. According to ch-aviation PRO airports data, 37 airlines fly in and out of Newark, linking it to 190 other airports. It handles almost 500 departures daily.

At this point, the proposal to scale back airport movements will only affect domestic carriers, with foreign air carrier movements managed under a separate IATA protocol. "FAA will initiate steps under the IATA process to manage, if necessary, the scheduled operations of foreign air carriers at EWR that are complementary to the scheduling reduction meeting," the FAA's meeting notice adds.