Major delays expected at San Francisco airport under new FAA limits

Delays at San Francisco International Airport could reach up to 30 minutes after the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday imposed new safety restrictions on landings.

The restrictions coincide with a construction project that will take two runways out of commission for six months, KRON4 reported. Those runways closed Monday and won’t reopen until October, the airport announced previously.

The airport initially predicted that less than 10 percent of flights would delayed when construction started, most likely around 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. However, the new FAA restrictions have bumped that forecast to up to a quarter of flights being delayed.

The new rule from the aviation regulator prohibits airplanes from doing side-by-side landings on the still-open east-to-west runways, even with the other aircraft in sight. Instead, pilots must take a staggered approach to landing.

The construction project aims to repave the airport’s surface layer, make improvements to taxiways, upgrade lighting and paint new striping and markings, the airport said.

The FAA told the San Francisco Chronicle that the new landing rules were implemented independent of construction, as the agency has been “exploring ways to safely increase the airport arrival rate.”

Side-by-side landings had been permitted at the airport in good weather, but recent aviation-safety issues have come under increased scrutiny.

Most recently, a fatal plane crash took place at LaGuardia Airport in New York airport last week.

According to a flight-tracking website Flightly, nearly a quarter of arriving flights at San Francisco airport were delayed as of Tuesday. Forty percent of departures were also late, taking off 25 minutes later on average.

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