Never let a good crisis go to waste. Facing congestion and air traffic controller shortages, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby is calling on the Trump Administration to reintroduce slot controls at Newark Liberty International Airport. It’s a move that seeks to stave off competition at Newark even as the carrier eyes a return to New York JFK.

United Airlines Cuts Flights At Newark, Blames FAA, Appeals To Trump For Help

It has been a rough week for United Airlines at its Newark (EWR) hub, with three consecutive days of delays exceeding 40% of flights. To complicate matters, United claims that 20% of air traffic controllers walked off the job this week, a claim that has not been substantiated in other media sources.

United took the rare action of publishing a note from Kirby on Friday concerning the issue:

For many years, United has been very clear and vocal about the need to fix the Air Traffic Control system in EWR. While we enthusiastically support the efforts underway to permanently and structurally fix the FAA, the long-simmering FAA challenges boiled over this week.

In the past few days, on more than one occasion, technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans. Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’snow clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.

United is committed to doing absolutely everything in our power to minimize the impact that this will have on customers and so we are unilaterally cancelling 35 roundtrip flights per day from our Newark schedule starting this weekend. It’s disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers.

These challenges are not new to Newark. United has been urging the US government for *years* to use its authority to effectively limit the number of flights to what the airport can realistically handle. Past failure to make those changes had led to the circumstances that United and, most importantly, our customers now face.

I spoke with Sec. Duffy this afternoon and appreciate his immediate response to my call. We’re pleased that the new administration has put together a proposal for a large, systemwide investment in FAA technology, infrastructure and staffing. In the medium to long term, it’s the only way to solve the systemwide problem. Now, we’re encouraging them to apply this decisive leadership to the difficult situation they inherited at Newark, too – by designating it as a slot controlled, Level 3 airport.

Newark is an incredible airport and takes our customers to 76 different US cities and 81 international destinations. I want to thank the dedicated United team that’s been working hard – especially over the last few days – to take care of our customers at this difficult time. There are also highly skilled professionals at the FAA, including air traffic controllers, who are persevering through technology and staffing shortfalls to ensure that the tens of thousands of people traveling through Newark every day get to their destinations safely. By using the authority it has, the FAA can help Newark fulfill its incredible potential to be a safe, reliable and efficient gateway to the world for the American traveling public. 

There’s a lot here to unpack.

Newark Is A Problem, But United Wants To Turn Lemons Into Lemonade

Here are my thoughts on the memo:

• Kirby is continuing to court the Trump administration by saying “they inherited” the problem, even though the problem preceded the Biden administration (no meaningful work on the issue), the first Trump administration (no meaningful work on the issue), and even the Obama administration (no meaningful work on the issue)…Newark has been a mess for years, with administration from both sides failing to meaningfully fix it, or the wider problem of the outdated air traffic control systems and infrastructure in the USA.
• Cancelling 10% of flights immediately (35 flights per day) is a big deal…United knows it cannot continue to operationally perform so poorly in Newark and there is no other solution at this point other than to cut flights.
• The proposal to make Newark a Level 3 airport again (bringing back slot controls) is very self-serving and likely a bid block Delta Air Lines from ramping up service to EWR even as United has ambitious plans to return to New York JFK under a proposed partnership with JetBlue.
• I’m very surprised Air Traffic Controllers would just walk off the job…I would like to know more details.

CONCLUSION

United is seeking to turn lemons into lemonade, even as it blames congestion and staffing shortages on its announcement that will immediately scale back flights by 10% in an effort to improve operations.

United is quite right to point out that the situation in Newark is unacceptable and I don’t blame United for scheduling too many flights: the airspace should be able to accommodate current traffic patterns. While I also cannot blame United for opportunistic, the solution is not to cut off competition from EWR but to fix the air traffic control problem. Surely in a country that put a man on the moon, we can address congestion over New York City…