The chaos that has plagued Newark is over after lots of 'begging' for help, United's CEO says
Chronic understaffing, technology outages, and runway construction caused delays of up to five hours in April and May.
This was particularly damaging for United, given that it operates around 70% of flights at the New Jersey airport.
Following calls for action from the airline's CEO, Scott Kirby, the Federal Aviation Administration limited the number of flights in and out of Newark in late May.
In United's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, Kirby said he was "incredibly appreciative" to government officials and agencies for "finally putting Newark on a level playing field with LaGuardia and JFK."
"I've literally been begging them to do that from the time I've been here at United," he added. "It's simple math."
The airline reported that its Newark operation regained the title of best on-time performance among New York City-area airports for June.
Alongside the hourly flight caps, technology has been upgraded, and runway construction was completed nearly two weeks ahead of schedule.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular working hours.
Toby Enqvist, United's chief operating officer, said the chaos and "extensive negative news coverage" drove away bookings and saw load factors drop by 15 percentage points. That meant margins for the second quarter fell 1.2 percentage points, he added.
"Bookings have largely recovered, and we don't expect any impact in Q4 because Newark isn't just back to normal, it's running better than ever," Enqvist said.
United reported second-quarter profits of $1 billion, beating Wall Street expectations, on revenues of $15.2 billion. Its share price rose about 3%.
Airline stocks have whipsawed this year due to concerns over reduced demand due to economic volatility, largely linked to Donald Trump's tariff plans.
However, demand is now coming back.
"The economy hit a turning point, an inflection point, at the end of June, and I expect that to continue," Kirby said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
New York gas prices essentially unchanged from last week: See how much you're paying
State gas prices are essentially unchanged for the second consecutive week at an average of $3.08 per gallon of regular fuel on Monday, approximately the same as last week's price, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average fuel price in state declined about 6 cents since last month. According to the EIA, gas prices across the state in the last year have been as low as $3.00 on March 17, 2025, and as high as $3.52 on July 8, 2024. A year ago, the average gas price in New York was 13% higher at $3.52 per gallon. >> INTERACTIVE: See how your area's gas prices have changed over the years at . The average gas price in the United States last week was $3.12, making prices in the state about 1.4% lower than the nation's average. The average national gas price is essentially unchanged from last week's average of $3.13 per gallon. The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu. Our News Automation and AI team would like to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us. This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: New York gas prices essentially unchanged from last week Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
22 minutes ago
- New York Times
New York Republicans Unite in Attacking Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani may well be far out of sight, visiting family in Uganda some 7,000 miles from New York City. But he is clearly not far from the minds of Republicans. On Wednesday, within a matter of a few hours, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, was targeted by two prominent Republican House members in New York and the New York Young Republican Club. Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents a crucial Hudson Valley swing seat, introduced a bill called the MAMDANI Act, an acronym that stands for Measuring Adverse Market Disruption And National Impact. The bill is aimed at studying the effect of Mr. Mamdani's proposal for five city-owned grocery stores. 'Zohran Mamdani's push for government-owned grocery stores is straight out of the Marxist playbook, and history shows exactly how this experiment ends,' Mr. Lawler said, arguing that the candidate's 'socialist fantasies' would fail. Mr. Mamdani has proposed creating one municipal grocery store in each borough to help lower prices for shoppers. The stores could help reduce costs by using city land or buildings, buying food wholesale and receiving an exemption from property taxes. An hour earlier, Representative Elise Stefanik, a fellow New York Republican and close ally of President Trump, issued a drive-by attack on Mr. Mamdani, warning that a 'radical communist defund-the-police antisemite may be elected mayor of New York City.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Polymarket's Derivatives Exchange Acquisition Sets Stage for a Return to US
Polymarket is returning to the U.S. The company on Monday acquired derivatives exchange and clearinghouse QCX for $112 million, paving the way for it to return to this market. The acquisition comes weeks after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted QCX a license to operate as a contract market. "With the acquisition of QCEX, we are laying the foundation to bring Polymarket home — re-entering the US as a fully regulated and compliant platform that will allow Americans to trade their opinions," Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said in a press release. Polymarket operates a peer-to-peer prediction market, in which users bet on the outcome of events spanning politics, culture, and sports, with wagers denominated in cryptocurrency. The company, while based in New York City, has been barred from taking bets from U.S. residents since 2022, when the CFTC accused it of operating a derivatives trading platform without proper registration. Polymarket's users accurately predicted Donald Trump's victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris in last year's presidential race, even as many pollsters saw the contest as effectively a coin toss. Polymarket users bet nearly $3.7 billion on the outcome of the presidential election last year. Federal Probe Into Polymarket Dropped This Month In the days after the election, Coplan said Polymarket returning to the U.S. was "part of the plan." Shortly thereafter, Coplan's apartment was raided and his phone seized by FBI agents as part of a federal investigation into whether Polymarket had continued to accept U.S.-based bets in violation of its agreement with regulators. That investigation by the CFTC and Justice Department was dropped earlier this month, according to a Bloomberg report. The investigation into Polymarket was the latest in a string of Biden-era cryptocurrency cases to be closed by the Trump administration. Federal regulators earlier this year dropped cases against crypto exchanges Coinbase Global (COIN), Kraken, and Binance, as well as online brokerage Robinhood (HOOD). Polymarket is in talks to dive deeper into cryptocurrencies. The platform currently settles trades with Circle Internet Group's (CRCL) USDC, and Coplan on Wednesday told CNBC's "Squawk Box"' that it was "exploring" a stablecoin. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
