FAA reduces SFO arrivals, setting up delays amid runway work and safety concerns

Travelers can expect roughly one quarter of arriving flights to be delayed by at least half an hour at San Francisco International Airport over the next six months after the Federal Aviation Administration this week cut a third of its arrivals because of safety concerns and runway construction.

A temporary runway project and permanent FAA rule change announced Tuesday means San Francisco’s airport will go from 54 plane arrivals an hour to 36 arrivals. It is not yet clear if any flights will be cut.

A deadly runway crash between Air Canada jet and a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in March is the latest air-traffic safety calamity, but the aviation administration said the rule change was unique to SFO and it was not triggered by broader safety concerns. The San Francisco safety concerns are unique to that airport because of how close the parallel runways are and how complicated the airspace is with several surrounding airports.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said officials decided that SFO's longstanding practice of landing two planes at the same time on closely spaced parallel runways that are just 750 feet apart — along with congested airspace — was too dangerous. He could not say why the practice had been allowed.

SFO operates on two sets of parallel runways. The north-south runways are out of commission for six months for a repaving project that is responsible for nine of the 18 flight per hour reductions. The rule change will affect the remaining nine flights.

It is unclear how the airport will handle the delays.

United Airlines said it is reviewing the rule change to see if any changes need to be made to its flight schedule, a spokesperson said by email.

Alaska Airlines said in an email that the situation was changing by the day, with 15 flights delayed out of SFO on Monday and none experiencing delays on Tuesday.

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports, including San José Mineta International Airport and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport, and smaller ones.

Associated Press writer Janie Har contributed reporting from San Francisco