United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has written an op-ed for Fox News calling for the return of slot controls at Newark Liberty International Airport. Let’s take a look at Kirby’s argument and whether it is reasonable or purely self-serving to protect United’s dominance at the bustling New Jersey airport.
United CEO Kirby Pens Fox News Op-Ed On Newark Airport Congestion
Flight delays have been terrible at Newark Airport this week, with runway construction, air traffic controller shortages, signal outages, and too many flights on the schedule, creating a bottleneck that has a ripple effect across the network.
United, which operates about 75% of the flights from Newark, has been forced to scale back its ambitious summer flight schedule after facing mounting delays from the perfect storm I highlighted above. Since Newark is not a so-called “Level 3” airport (with slot controls, like New York LaGuardia and New York JFK), carriers can add and remove flights as they please…there is nothing stopping Sprit or Delta, for example, from adding four new flights in response to United’s cuttting of flights, beyond a shared fear that those flights will be delayed.
It is that potential “loophole” that Kirby wants to shut. Writing for Fox News, Kirby first argues that the slowdown in traffic proves Newark is safe…that no corners are being cut to ensure the safety of every flight. He also bemoans “decades of failing to properly invest in the system has prevented good-faith efforts to make technology upgrades and bolster the staffing of our nation’s hard-working air traffic controllers.”
That’s largely true. I’ve had many people ask me this week if Newark Airport is “safe” to fly out of and my answer is yes…I certainly think so and do not think any actor (government or airline) would risk safety to allow more takeoffs and landings. Kirby says the solution is to reintroduce slot controls:
The good news is that we are on the verge of solving this persistent customer delay problem at EWR. All that’s left is the FAA using the authority — that only they have — to designate EWR as a Level 3 airport.
President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have introduced a plan to fund and execute a long-term modernization of our antiquated system. And while that is a huge step forward, it will also take time — there are no short-cuts to overhaul a technology system this vast, complex and critical to our economic and national security.
Immediately returning Newark to a Level 3 slot-controlled airport is the most effective way to provide relief to air traffic controllers and deliver a better experience for customers.
Kirby points to operational figures between 2017 – 2019 and 2022 – 2025 (understandably omitting the low-traffic pandemic years) to argue that the removal of slot controls has led to more delays and cancellations:
- 18% more customers – an extra 120,000 people a year – had their flight cancelled
- 17% more customers – an additional 1.9 million people – had an arrival delay
- 43% more customers had an hour delay or longer – nearly one million people per year
United also claims it is smaller in Newark today than it was in 2016, so it’s not like United alone is responsible for these delays and cancellations because it has simply built up its flight schedule.
Kirby concludes as he starts, arguing that “to make an impact at EWR that will be felt today, the FAA must also return EWR to a Level 3 slot controlled airport. It was a mistake to de-slot the airport in 2016 – every single data point says so – and we know that implementing slots is the immediate action the FAA can take to reduce congestion there now.”
Is Kirby’s Argument Reasonable Or Self-Serving? (Maybe Both?)
A few thoughts.
- I find it interesting that Kirby continues to court the Trump Administration with flattering language or in this case, via friendly media outlets. I tend to think it is good business based on my observations of this administration, but it’s pretty blatant brown nosing…
- United insists that the slot controls would not benefit United because it wants to grow in Newark but would be forced to limit its schedule and even cut back flights
- I don’t buy that because what United proposes would essentially lock in United’s advantage at the airport, making it much harder for competition to enter and making it easier for United to raise fares to compensate for the reduced flight schedule
- Kirby is correct that any ATC upgrades represent a long-term solution, but there is a need to address short-term pain or else it will be a true summer of misery for every traveling flying via Newark.
Is Congestion Pricing The Answer?
Congestion pricing involves charging higher fees during peak hours when congestion is most severe. By increasing the price of peak-hour usage, congestion pricing aims to reduce demand and encourage users to shift their travel to off-peak hours.
While I appreciate that this could be one approach to the problem, I’m not sure that congestion pricing passed on to consumers would make a difference. Flights would still operate, people would pay more, budget carriers like Spirit might be squeezed out, but it likely would not help the congestion and would come at the expense of thrifty travelers and flights to smaller cities.
Even so, I’m very skeptical of slot controls: it’s simply handing a monopoly to incumbent airlines in the form of a subsidy. At the very least, slots should be up for bidding and negotiation every few years.
CONCULSION
I’m not convinced that Newark should return to slot controls, though what is clear is that something needs to give as the summer travel season kicks off and delays and cancellations out of Newark are already too high. I’m quite sympathetic to United’s argument that it should not have to bear the weight of schedule reductions alone, even as the dominant carrier in Newark, but also note the self-interet in such voluntary reductions: delays tick off customers and United has a strong interest in doing whatever it takes, even without goverment mandate, to run a smoother operation in its fortress hub of Newark.
image: United Airlines
He will 100% get this if he continues to kiss trumps butt… but it will be rescinded if he doesn’t keep the butt kissing going. Adding starlink to their fleet was a smart move in this regard
There are three things that Scott Kirby repeatedly fails to note every time he talks about EWR
1. EWR was slot-controlled just like LGA and JFK but UA underutilized its slots while holding 70% plus of the EWR slots and so the FAA removed slot controls. UA and UA alone- even if under a previous administration – is responsible for the lack of slot controls.
2. UA still controls 70% of the flights at EWR, far higher than any other congested airport. The FAA is primarily focused with safety but they work closely with the DOJ in discussing congested airspace. The chances of the FAA adding slot controls is next to zero as long as UA controls well over 50% of EWR’s flight activity; the DOJ required AA and US to divest all of the acquired slots from AA in the AA/US slot merger since US already had more than 50% of the slots at DCA.
3. The runway construction that is the most limiting factor at EWR has been planned for months and was known to reduce EWR’s runway capacity. UA has not said BEFORE the construction began how much it reduced capacity at EWR but I can assure you it was nowhere near close to the half that realistically is necessary when EWR goes down to single runway ops which is what happens when weather prohibits using the crosswind runway.
And the FAA did speak on the subject yesterday and is summoning all interested airlines to Washington DC next week to “voluntarily” request flight reductions at EWR that will be half of the levels that UA has proposed during the remainder of runway construction AND after runway construction until the end of the IATA season. They will take each individual airline into a room w/ a DOJ official and ask for each airline’s offer to reduce their schedule and has the right to continue the process until the number of flights get down to levels the FAA believes EWR can handle.
It is clear that the FAA does not believe that UA’s expectations for how many flights EWR can handle are anywhere close to being realistic.
The EWR UA hub as we know it now is going to shrink for at least the near to medium term and it is doubtful that it will regrow to its current size for years if the FAA has anything to say about it.
@TimDunn … Informative . Thank you .
I might add what many know : Newark is a dump .
Good analysis, Tim. Thanks.
United claims it’s smaller today in EWR than it was in 2016 is 100% false. In 2016 United operated 351 daily flights out of EWR, in 2024 the latest figures available United operated 440 daily flights out of EWR. Even with the reduction of 35 daily flights just announced they would still be operating 405 daily flights assuming they didn’t add any additional flying out of EWR in 2025 compared to the 440 they operated daily in 2024.
What other domestic airline besides United at EWR has grown and sustained their growth at EWR since 2016? JetBlue has cut back their EWR operations both American and Delta are operating far fewer flights today than in 2016. and Southwest left EWR entirely. It leaves Spirit and Frontier neither of those airlines operate a schedule out of EWR that would have a large impact on hourly arrival and departure rates.
I will follow-up with UA on this…thanks, @proschwit.
proschwit and Matthew
the Port Authority has a website that includes interactive traffic data.
you can find it by googling
“port authority ny nj airport traffic statistics”
UA is down slightly from what it has operated but has consistently controlled 65-70% of the flights at EWR.
Given that EWR has been delay-prone for years, it should have been possible for UA to right-size their operation to what EWR can handle but they have not done this. No other carrier has more than 5% share of EWR.
It is undoubtedly because EWR has been in the news so much and UA’s CEO has tried to throw the blame on the FAA that the FAA is is writing its own plan to fix the problem and it involves much lower flight levels than UA thinks the airport can handle – which has enormous impact on the future competitive environment in NYC.
UA could end up being 20% or more smaller than it is today while AA and B6′ hubs there could become much more economically viable and DL’s lead could become much larger.
EWR was never capable of handling the amount of traffic that is pushed through it as a UA hub. No NYC airport is capable of hosting a large hub without reducing competitor shares to low single digit percentages. Not serving JFK leaves UA in a very precarious position – but they were much smaller than AA, B6 and DL even when they did serve JFK.
If the FAA requires flight levels at EWR to remain as low as they are proposing even in the non-construction periods, the only way that UA can maintain its position in the NYC market is to acquire B6 – which opens up a whole new discussion about whether the big 4 should be able to consolidate even more, esp. in limited access markets like NYC where the government has tried to give low cost carriers a larger piece of the market.
Matthew, I recommend the book An American Saga: Juan Trippe and His Pan Am Empire if you haven’t read it.
Author is Robert Daly.
It’s a great book on the creation of the airline industry so someone that is interested in the airlines would like it.
Thanks for the tip.
Even by domestic airline standards Kirby is a real piece of work. He’s cheerful about screwing over passengers and his own people then cries crocodile tears that his hub has issues (which he could address by reducing UA flights) but determines that the answer is locking out other airlines from Newark. This while he’s working to get JetBlue’s NYC slots to try to corner the NYC market. I have no high moral expectations for airline CEO’s, particularly in the USA but this guy makes me want to puke.
Isn’t United the same airline caught bribing Newark Airport managers a few years back?
Did United not know about the runway work? Notices of such work are issued months in advance by the airport authority to the airlines so they can adjust accordingly.
Also, Kirby is cutting his own throat while rattling his saber. I know of one couple who have cancelled their United tickets to Europe via EWR. They re-booked with Delta for their Euro trip. I wonder how many others have done the same.
I think you ask a great quesiton about the runway work and one that I intend to ask Kirby tomorrow!
Airlines reduced their schedules in anticipation of the runway closure. The FAA asked airlines to reduce flights to around 66 an hour. Problem was that the reduced CPC workforce and spotty data connections ensured that even 66 was too much to handle.
Don’t forget that EWR had the same runway closed for two months in 2014 and there were no issues of this magnitude.
I can provide a little bit of context here since I worked for the FAA and PANYNJ doing capacity planning. I know EWR very well and am familiar with its operations.
Historically, EWR has been the most delay plagued NYC area airport and, indeed, the worst delayed airport in the entire NAS. The FAA claims that EWR’s capacity is around 95-100 movements an hour and airlines, particularly CO/UA, scheduled flights accordingly. This 95-100 figure assumes that all three runways, including the crosswind, are used at the same time. The reality is different. EWR’s borders LGA’s airspace, which limits usage of the crosswind runway for additional landings and limits operations into and out of the airport. Furthermore, staffing issues have prevented the more complex operation. This has relegated EWR to a two-runway airport, whose capacity is in the low 80s (around 40 landings and hour and slightly more departures). Regardless, the FAA largely left EWR alone and the airport wasn’t slot controlled for most of its existence
In the summer of 2007, JFK was experiencing bad delays – mostly weather related but also caused by a large increase of flights when slots were lifted. The FAA eventually decided to reintroduce slots at JFK, but not EWR. Only after some NJ politicians voiced concern about potential JFK flights overflowing to EWR did the FAA decide to move EWR to a Level 3 slot-controlled airport. The number was set to 81 movements an hour.
About ten years ago, airlines were complaining that UA wasn’t fully using EWR’s slots and, thus, crowding them out. Indeed, analysis showed this to be true as slots were underutilized as EWR averaged around 73 movements an hour during peak times. While delays were still bad, they had improved, and the decision was made to relax EWR’s slots and make it a Level 2 airport (basically means FAA must agree to the schedules). The level was set to around 77 movements an hour, which is within the range EWR can handle in a two-runway configuration.
I should not that UA was against this move because it would mean more competition at their EWR hub and they would lose value on their slots, which they include as an asset on their balance sheet. If I recall, UA had to write-off tens of millions of dollars because of this. So, I question Kirby’s complaint that it’s all about delays.
Speaking of the current situation, it’s 100% due to moving EWR area controllers at NY TRACON (N90) to PHL. First, they moved the area and assigned less controllers (fully staffed is around 50, they had 33, but moved 24), exacerbating an already “critical” situation. They currently have 22 controllers, and some are retiring this year. They haven’t met the recruiting numbers (PHL has also been a difficult facility to staff) and many of those in training have quit because they see what a mess they’d be dealing with. It’s likely they’ll have less than 20 controllers next year. Most of those who were transferred are supposed to head back to N90 next summer and they have anyone even close to certifying. The staffing situation will get uglier.
The equipment failures are due to the data feed between N90 and PHL. It was hastily built with few redundancies. They never built a direct feed to PHL Area C like N90 has. The feed cannot handle the data being processed, which is why it keeps going out. Note that the other N90 airports, JFK, LGA, ISP, etc., have not had any issues – only EWR and surrounding airports. The last two weeks aren’t the only times the feed has shut down – it’s been happening since the move last summer. The FAA is working on a “fix”, but it’s temporary and I’ve been told that it has issues on its own. It would cost far too much to build a direct data feed to EWR at PHL, so I think these “workarounds” are here to stay.
I also want to note that EWR had the same runway close in 2014 for two months and they had zero issues compared to now. Airlines adjusted their flights accordingly, just like they have now. The runway closure isn’t really to blame.
Regarding re-slotting EWR, I think it’s the best solution. Moving it back to N90 would solve a lot of these issues, but the FAA wants to stick with this dumb idea, so you need to reduce traffic to a level that a depressed number of controllers can handle. There were some shifts where they had only 1-2 working controllers (ideal each shift would be 15, but they can manage with less and anything less than half the ideal is an issue). I’ve heard that they want to have flight numbers in the mid 50s for the duration of the runway closure and high 60s (which is lower than LGA’s level) afterwards and then they’ll figure out what to do next.
Also, congestion pricing and slot auctions won’t work. The FAA can’t do them anyways (they only did auctions as a way of facilitating the sale the excess LGA slots during divestitures from mergers, but they didn’t keep the proceeds – the airlines did) since they’re not allowed to raise additional revenue without congressional approval. They did give airport operators the authority to implement congestion pricing, but none of them have for obvious reasons.
Thanks for this!