United Airlines has launched a fee waiver for passengers to change their flights to Newark Liberty International Airport, following nine days of cancellations and delays.
According to a statement made by United Airlines on May 2, the delays and cancellations come as a result of severe air traffic control staff shortages and technical issues with the US Federal Aviation Authoritys air traffic control equipment.
In the past couple of days, these issues were exacerbated by poor weather conditions.
Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20 of the FAA controllers for EWR walked off the job. Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, its now clear and the FAA tells us that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead, said United Airlines.
Since May 3, United has cancelled 35 roundtrips per day from its Newark schedule. According to Flightradar , only two of the airlines daily Johannesburg-Newark flights have been impacted, on May 1 and May 5. However, almost all of the return flights since April 29, have been delayed.