United plans to hire more than 2,500 employees by the end of 2026 at Newark Liberty International Airport as airline bookings and consumer confidence about flying through Newark are bouncing back, United CEO Scott Kirby said Tuesday.
United had its best operational summer ever at Newark, putting the airport on par with John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport for on-time performance, Kirby said. More than 6 million people flew on-time through Newark this past summer.
The turnaround follows a two-month period in April and May when Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) was plagued by a series of technology outages that cut off communication with air-traffic controllers and resulted in flight delays and cancellations. Some controllers took trauma-related leave, adding to a staffing shortage at the Philadelphia facility that manages Newark’s airspace.
But since that time, bookings and customer confidence about flying through Newark have rebounded, Kirby said, thanks to efforts by federal officials, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and United employees. Factors in the turnaround include:
- Runway construction was completed two weeks early on June 2.
- The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which had limited Newark flight operations to 68 flights per hour in May, has tentatively raised the limit to 72 flights per hour through the summer of 2026.
- The FAA installed a new fiber optic network in July to support the air traffic control system, which had been a contributing factor to previous communication outages.
"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," Kirby said. As the FAA and U.S. Department of Transportation increase staffing and improve technology, “reliability and on-time performance of Newark will only get better."
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 popular cities like Rome, Venice, Porto, Marrakesh and Dublin, he said.
Domestically, the airline will add flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale and new cities including Palm Springs, California; Columbia, South Carolina; and Chattanooga, Tennessee.
United now employs more than 14,000 people in the Newark/New York City area, including over 3,000 pilots at its pilot base and more than 5,700 flight attendants. The airline expects to add more than 2,500 Newark employees between now and the end of 2026.
United will also be the first airline to bring sustainable aviation fuel to Newark, with plans to purchase up to 1 million gallons from Neste for use at EWR this year. United purchased more than 13 million gallons of SAF in 2024, more than any other U.S. airline.
Sustainable aviation fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 80% over the fuel’s life cycle compared to using fossil jet fuels.
