United Airlines held a celebration at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) led by CEO Scott Kirby to mark the carrier’s “operational turnaround” at the facility. In April and May, challenges associated with air traffic control staffing, technology outages and runway construction led to a concentrated number of delays and cancelations out of the airport.

This summer, according to a statement, United celebrated its best operational summer ever at EWR, putting the airport on par with John F. Kennedy Airport (JFK) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) for on-time performance. In fact, said the statement, United flights out of EWR arrived on time more often this summer than flights operated by airlines out of JFK or LGA.

These rankings, said the statement, come as more than six million people flew United on-time through Newark this summer, the most in the airline’s history.

Looking ahead to this fall and winter, United plans to serve more than 160 domestic and international destinations from EWR – more than any other airline in the New York City area – adding flights to Rome, Venice, Porto, Marrakesh and Dublin. Domestically, the airline will add flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and new cities including Palm Springs, Calif.; Columbia, S.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

Additionally, United expects to hire more than 2,500 Newark employees between 2025-2026 and will be the first airline to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for use at EWR.

Kirby said, “Newark is operating better than ever and United’s future here is bright – that’s a credit to the thousands of Newark employees who deliver for our customers and one another every day.” He said that ss the FAA and DOT implement their plan of increased staffing and improved technology, “the reliability and on-time performance of Newark will only get better.”

Since May, according to United,

• Runway construction was completed two weeks early on June 2.

• Beginning in May, the FAA limited Newark flight operations to 68 per hour. This was down from a high of 86, a number that was well above EWR’s maximum theoretical capacity even in ideal operating conditions. The FAA has tentatively limited flights out of Newark to 72 per hour through summer 2026.
• In July, the FAA installed a new fiber optic network to support the air traffic control system.