United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) will pro-actively and temporarily cut 12% or 50 domestic departures daily at New York Newark from July 1 due to ongoing bottlenecks blamed on airport construction and other issues.

In a recent memo to staff, United’s chief operations officer, Jon Roitman, said the airline had received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allowing it to do so.

While the airline has enough pilots, crews, and other staff to support its Newark schedule, cutting flights “should help minimise excessive delays and improve on-time performance [...] for everyone flying through Newark."

"After the last few weeks of irregular operations in Newark, caused by many factors including airport construction, we reached out to the FAA and received a waiver allowing us to temporarily adjust our schedule there for the remainder of the summer," Roitman wrote in the memo to staff, shared by the airline with ch-aviation.

A United Airlines spokesperson said the move would not result in any market exits, just frequency reductions. The airline did also not anticipate any schedule changes at United's other six domestic hubs, Roitman wrote.

"We will continue to partner with the FAA and Port Authority so we can reinstate these 50 daily departures and revert to a full schedule from Newark as soon as possible," he added.

In a statement, the FAA confirmed it had allowed United Airlines to not use some of its slots at Newark due to construction at several gates and runway construction.

According to the ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Operator Capacity Data module, United Airlines has the highest market share in weekly seat capacity at Newark, one of the nation's busiest airports.

It has consistently been among the US airports with the most delays and cancellations. United Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby recently told CNN: "The biggest issue is, there are more flights scheduled in Newark, for example, than there is capacity at the airport, even on a perfect blue sky day and air traffic control is understaffed and because of that, there are just more flights than the airport can handle".

United has accused other airlines — Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airways in particular — of operating more flights than allowed under federal rules. Spirit Airlines responded that United holds "virtual monopoly status at Newark".

Staffing shortages and bad weather have also contributed to congested US airports on recent holiday weekends.

According to US media, several other airlines have trimmed their schedules, including Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways, and Alaska Airlines.