(Bloomberg) — US aviation safety regulators proposed temporarily limiting flights at Newark airport to no more than 28 arrivals per hour to reduce delays after a pair of radar and radio outages fueled major disruptions in recent weeks.
The proposal mirrors an earlier one from the Federal Aviation Administration that, when counting an equivalent number of departures, would cap operations at 56 total flights per hour while construction on one of Newark Liberty International Airport’s runways is underway.
Outside the construction period, the agency would allow 34 arrivals per hour through Oct. 25, the FAA said in a statement on Friday. That would translate to 68 total flights. Daily construction on the runway will end on June 15, and continue on Saturdays until the end of the year, the FAA said.
Newark airport routinely handled more than 70 flights an hour during peak periods. The proposal comes after three days of discussions between FAA officials and carriers including United Airlines Holdings Inc. to address the strains on air traffic controllers handling flights in and out of the busy hub.
A final decision won’t be made until at least May 28, when a public comment period is scheduled to conclude.
Concerns over aging technology and chronic understaffing at air traffic control facilities across the US came to a head on April 28, when radar screens went black and radios fell silent at a Philadelphia center guiding planes in and out of Newark. The outage left controllers briefly unable to see or communicate with planes in some of the nation’s most congested airspace.
Another air traffic facility managing flights into Denver International Airport briefly lost several radio frequencies Monday.
None of the incidents resulted in accidents or injuries.
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