By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration said on Tuesday that it was imposing new safety restrictions at San Francisco International Airport that will limit some landings and lead to significant delays.
The FAA said the airport will experience delays due to a runway repaving project and the FAA decision to prohibit flights from making side-by-side approaches to San Francisco's parallel east-west runways in clear weather. The FAA is exploring ways to safely
increase the arrival rate at the 13th-busiest U.S. airport.
The two measures will reduce maximum rates from 54 flights per hour to 36. The FAA does not plan to lift the restrictions once the runway repaving operation is completed.
The airport’s runway project will put the two north-south runways out of service for approximately six months.
United Airlines accounts for about half of the passenger traffic at San Francisco, followed by Alaska Airlines with about 10%.
The FAA is now requiring "staggered approaches, with one aircraft offset from the aircraft on the parallel runway. The FAA never allowed side-by-side approaches in bad weather" and added that it was exploring ways to safely increase the airport arrival rate.
The FAA has taken a number of steps to reduce the chances of accidents due to visual separation issues.
The FAA said earlier this month that it was tightening helicopter safety rules and would suspend use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters near major airports.
The announcement follows the January 2025 mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an army helicopter that killed 67 people. The FAA cited two recent incidents in issuing the new rules, including a near miss involving an American Airlines flight and police helicopter near the San Antonio airport.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter)
