After another outage incident at the Newark airport control tower, aviation authorities are considering asking airlines to cut back on flights to the New York-area airport.
Those flying to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) may find their flights cancelled in the coming days after a s econd outage was reported at the facilities’ air traffic control tower.
Bloomberg reports authorities are planning to meet regarding reducing flights in and out of the New York area airport – one of the busiest airspaces in the world.
Plan Would Ask Carriers to Voluntarily Reduce Flights
While the Federal Aviation Administration and others have not commented, insiders speaking anonymously to Bloomberg says a meeting could take place quickly between authorities and air carriers. This comes after the air traffic control tower controlling Newark lost radar and communications capabilities in the early morning hours of Friday, May 9, 2025.
As a result of the meeting, authorities could ask airlines to reduce their schedules in and out of Newark Liberty, primarily a stronghold for United Airlines. The reductions would pace flights at a rate which can be handled by the current staff of air traffic controllers with their equipment limitations.
United has voluntarily reduced the number of flights out of the international hub before. Currently, the carrier has reduced their flights by 33% compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Moreover, United chief executive Scott Kirby has called for additional flight reductions: No more than 48 per hour during runway construction, and 77 per hour during normal conditions.
In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Transportation has vowed to install redundancy hardware as a backup to the current technology with the hopes of preventing another blackout incident at the air traffic control facility. They will also expedite repairs and upgrades, including replacing communications infrastructure operating on copper wire to fiber optics.
