by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 2:50 PM ET, Mon August 11, 2025
In an effort to continue easing delays at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed extending limits on the rate of arrivals and departures at the historically congested airport.
The FAA is now seeking to continue flight reductions at the airport through next year, ending on October 24, 2026, according to an FAA press release.
The flight reductions were first implemented back in May, after a series of disruptions at the airport that impacted hundreds of flights. The disruptions also caused broader concern about the condition of the nation’s air traffic control system.
At that point, the FAA limited operations at Newark, which is the 14th busiest hub in the United States, to 72 flights per hour (36 inbound and 36 outbound). The current limit is in place through the end of 2025.
The goal of the reductions is to “continue maintaining safety while alleviating flight delays due to staffing and equipment challenges, resulting in smoother travel into and out of Newark,” the FAA said in its press release.
The new FAA proposal would continue limiting arrivals and departures during airport construction on weekends from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31, 2025, to 28 each per hour.
As of Oct. 26, 2025, outside of the construction period, arrivals and departures should not exceed 36 each per hour through Oct. 24, 2026.
The FAA is inviting airlines and interested parties to submit comments about the extension proposal. All feedback must be submitted to the agency by Aug. 15, 2025.
United Airlines has already issued its reaction to the extension proposal. In a statement shared with United employees and also released to the media, United called the development “good news”:
“The FAA...extended their tentative order limiting flights in and out of EWR, only allowing a total of 72 operations per hour for both the Winter 2025 and Summer 2026 seasons...This action was to address the longstanding congestion issues at the airport, and United has remained a vocal advocate of the change for years,” says the statement.
“The extension is good news for our customers — locally and all around the world — as well as for our nearly 15,000 EWR employees," adds the statement.
According to the carrier, United’s bookings out of EWR have returned to normal compared to a few months ago and the airline said it believes the capacity limits reflected in the proposed FAA extension are “appropriate and consistent with the physical capacity of the airport and the current FAA staffing.”
United CEO Scott Kirby also voiced support for the proposal. "Our operations at Newark are the best they’ve ever been, and it is now regularly the most on time airport in the New York City area,” said Kirby, who says this reality is a result of the schedules out of Newark now matching “the actual capacity of the airport.”
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