Newark Reopens Runway Early After Major Construction Work

In a rare bit of good news this year for Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), one of three major New York commercial airports, an important runway reopened June 2, two weeks ahead of schedule.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, FAA acting Administrator Chris Rocheleau and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby were among officials at a press conference at New Jersey-based EWR June 2 to mark the occasion. Runway 4L-22R, at 11,000 ft. long, is one of three main runways at EWR, a hub for United Airlines. It was closed on April 15 for major rehabilitation work and was not scheduled to reopen until June 15.

EWR has been in the news this year for high numbers of flight delays and cancellations that mostly stem from antiquated air traffic management (ATM) equipment and controller shortages. Control over EWR’s ATM was switched last year to Philadelphia’s terminal radar approach control (TRACON), about 95 mi. south of New York, as a temporary fix. But there were three brief ATC outages at EWR in April and May, leading new Secretary Duffy to announce an immediate plan to replace an old copper wire communications TRACON line with a fiber-optic line. The new line has been installed but is still being tested, so the U.S. Transportation Department, FAA and airlines using EWR agreed to cap departures to 28 per hour from around 50-54 until testing was completed.

Duffy said June 2 that once all the runway construction work has been certified, hourly departures would be able to increase to 34. Rocheleau added that EWR was able to begin using the runway for departures from June 2 and next steps will be to have the runway certified for arrivals as well.

Kirby acknowledged that the attention brought onto EWR and its ATM issues have had an impact on bookings, so he emphasized the importance of getting the runway back into operation ahead of schedule.

“The future of Newark looks brighter than it has done for years,” he said. “Newark is the largest single international gateway anywhere in the country, particularly for Europe.”