FAA Plans Extended Newark Capacity Cap

The FAA wants to keep capacity down at Newark for an additional year, hoping operations will remain vaguely reasonable. In a filing late Friday the agency indicated its desire to “extend the duration of and amend the operating limitations of the June 2025 order to a rate of 72 hourly operations, an increase from the Summer 2025 scheduling season rate of 68 hourly operations.”

While the FAA continues to address the staffing challenges at EWR and evaluate longterm options for EWR, the FAA tentatively intends to extend and amend the June 2025 order to mitigate congestion, delays, and cancellations at EWR for the Winter 2025/2026 and Summer 2026 scheduling seasons.

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The current plan limits operations outside of the runway construction times to 34 arrivals and 34 departures hourly. Under the revised proposal those numbers will increase to 36 per hour, beginning on 26 October 2025. The new 72 movements/hour rate will then remain in effect for the following Winter and Summer IATA seasons, ending 24 October 2026.

In recommending the new limits the FAA shares that “Since the June 2025 order took effect, the status of the staffing pipeline for PHL has not materially changed.” Moreover, the agency notes that all current capacity drawdowns outside of the order are voluntary, and it does not expect airlines to make those cuts for Summer 2026 without a government mandate. “In the absence of the FAA’s extension of the order, the FAA anticipates a return of the staffing-related delays that precipitated the voluntary schedule reductions.”

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Exactly how the trimmed schedules will be set remains open to further discussion. The FAA says a reverse weighted lottery, could be used, or simply a proportional increase based on cuts made to get to the 68 rate. Other options are also listed in the document, including reconvening a new round of delay reduction meetings. Those meetings produced some contentious comments from the airlines back in June.

The filing details just how limited the staffing levels are in the PHL Area C sector that manages Newark airspace:

Presently, PHL’s targeted staffing number remains 114 Certified Professional Controllers (CPCs); the current onboard number at PHL is 82, representing 71.9 percent staffed. Within PHL, Area C’s targeted staffing number is 46 CPCs, with its current staff of 22 CPCs representing 48 percent staffed. Under an arrangement by the previous administration, by the end of July 2026, 14 CPCs currently assigned to Area C will return to the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control facility (N90), which previously oversaw the Newark area. ATO is taking action to replace those 14 CPCs. PHL now has a total of 31 trainees, with 26 assigned to Area C.

A conversation with one of those relocated N90 controllers earlier this year made clear they were keen to return home and not extend the temporary assignment to PHL, regardless of whether replacement staff were available.

Also of note: The response time for comments to the proposal is incredibly short. The pre-publication came out late on Friday, with an expected formal publication on 12 August 2025. All comments are due just three days later.