The boss of United Airlines has written to tens of thousands of anxious employees to reassure them that flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) remain safe despite air traffic technology failures and severe shortages of air traffic controllers that oversee planes around the busy airport.
Chief executive Scott Kirby told staffers that he wanted to “clear things up” after inaccurate reporting about the current situation at Newark.
Much of that reporting was spurred by a separate email Kirby sent to frequent flyers in which he alleged that 20% of controllers responsible for Newark had suddenly “walked off the job” after several major technology failures.
“First and most importantly, all the flights in and out of EWR are absolutely safe,” Kirby told worried employees who had heard horror stories of controllers losing communications with planes around Newak due to the Federal Aviation Administration’s dilapidated air traffic control systems.
“When there are FAA issues – technology outages, staffing shortages, etc. – the FAA requires all airlines to slow down aircraft and/or cancel flights to maintain the highest levels of safety,” Kirby continued.
The memo added: “We do our part to maintain safety as well. As you all know, our pilots have thousands of hours of flight experience and supplement that with regular simulator training – we also have procedures that our pilots follow to re-establish communication if controllers lose radio contact to navigate the airplane safely to its destination.”
“It’s long past time to treat EWR like the crown jewel that it is,”
United CEO Scott Kirby
Describing Newark as a “Crown Jewel” of the region, Kirby blasted the FAA for approving more flights per hour at peak times than the agency admits the airport can safely handle even in ideal conditions with full staffing and fully operational computer systems.
“This math doesn’t work,” Kirby slammed as he revealed the FAA regularly approved 80+ flights per hour between 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm.
Kirby explains that many busy airports around the world that have more demand for flights than their capacity can safely handle introduce slot controls to maintain safety. Essentially if an airline wants to fly to that airport, it has to bid for a time slot – one for landing and one for takeoff.
Slot controls ensure that busy airports only handle a safe number of flights per hour.
In the United States, examples of slot-controlled airports include New York JFK and LaGuardia, but in 2016, the FAA de-slotted Newark. That means that the FAA admits Newark shouldn’t ideally handle more than 77 flights per hour, that it is merely a guide and not a limit.
A major runway construction program has exasperated the situation at Newark and Kirby believes radical action needs to be taken. During this construction phase, Kirby believes the FAA should impose slot controls of only 48 flights per hour and then increase those slot controls to 77 flights per hour once the runway is complete.
The FAA and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy haven’t commented on the issue of slot controls, although the Trump administration says it has slowed arrivals and departures from Newark during the runway construction phase.
On Wednesday, the FAA also promised to accelerate technology upgrades between computer systems in the New York area and the air traffic control base that is responsible for Newark but which, in fact, is based in Philadelphia.
“It’s long past time to treat EWR like the crown jewel that it is,” Kirby wrote in his memo to United workers on Wednesday.
