Thousands of Flight Cancellations FAA’s Fault, United CEO Alleges

United CEO Scott Kirby is blaming the Federal Aviation Administration for massive delays and cancellations affecting the airline’s New York City-area operations days after a government watchdog report found critical short-staffing at air traffic control centers. 

More than 600 flights were canceled out of the three main New York airports—Newark, LaGuardia, and JFK—on both Monday and Tuesday, continuing the troubled airport operations from over the weekend, according to data from FlightAware. United has been the hardest hit of the major airlines with the most canceled flights each day.

On Monday, Kirby sent an internal email, which was subsequently leaked, saying that “the FAA frankly failed us this weekend.” Although there were thunderstorms rolling through the NYC area, Kirby alleged this was “something that the FAA has historically been able to manage without a severe impact on our operations and customers.” He claimed the FAA’s drastic reductions in arrivals and departures “is almost certainly a reflection of understaffing/lower experience at the FAA.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the FAA said “we will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem.”

Kirby’s email comes days after the Transportation Department of Inspector General released a report that found the FAA “has made limited efforts to ensure adequate controller staffing at critical air traffic control facilities.” The report disclosed that 77 percent of critical facilities are understaffed. One of the facilities it highlighted was the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control, which guides planes into and out of New York’s airports, and has just 54 percent staffing levels.

Do you work as an air traffic controller? Have any thoughts on the United CEO’s email or the Inspector General report? We’d love to hear from you. Email Aaron Gordon at aaron.gordon@vice.com.

It will likely take years to resolve the air traffic controller staffing issues. According to the inspector general report, the FAA doesn’t yet know the full impact of suspending training and certification programs during the pandemic. It can take more than three years to fully train a controller, so the suspension of training for almost two years during the pandemic has yet to fully impact FAA facilities.