(NewsNation) — United Airlines is eliminating 35 round-trip flights per day out of Newark Liberty Airport beginning this weekend due to technology issues with the airport’s air traffic control system and staffing issues, United officials announced Friday.
United CEO Scott Kirby announced the daily cancellations in an online statement to customers posted on the airline’s website. Kirby wrote that on more than one occasion over the past few days, the technology that Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers use to manage flights failed.
Kirby said the failures caused hundreds of delayed and canceled flights. He said that the issues were worsened by the fact that 20% of air traffic controllers working at the Newark airport walked off the job due to the continued issues.
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Kirby also wrote that the air traffic control facilities at the New Jersey airport have been “chronically understaffed for years.”
“Without these controllers, it’s now clear … that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate in the weeks and months ahead,” Kirby wrote in the announcement.
Kirby said that United is doing everything it can to minimize the impact on customers, which led to the 35 daily flights being canceled, he wrote.
“It’s disappointing to make further cuts to an already reduced schedule at Newark, but since there is no way to resolve the near-term structural FAA staffing issues, we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers,” Kirby said, according to the statement.
Multiple media reports, citing data from the flight-tracking site, FlightAware, reported that as of Friday, more than 300 flights in and out of Newark were either delayed or canceled. That was added to more than 1,400 flights that were affected by the difficulties earlier this week.
The FAA announced Friday that staffing issues were affecting airport operations in Newark, CNBC reported.
Kirby said that United has been urging the government to limit the number of flights that the airport can realistically manage due to staffing. The Wall Street Journal reported that United accounts for about 75% of the Newark airport’s traffic. The report also said the airline plans to add five new nonstop international flights out of the airport this year.
