United Airlines cuts flights out of Newark to improve on-time performance

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United Airlines <<UAL>> plans to temporarily cut about 50 daily domestic flights from Newark Liberty International Airport next month in an effort to reduce delays and cancellations that have led to customer frustration and negative publicity.

The airline received a waiver from the FAA to make the schedule changes. The cuts work out to about 12% of United's daily schedule at Newark.

United (NASDAQ:UAL) executives have stated that capacity constraints, airport construction and air traffic control are all bigger factors in the decision, not airline staffing shortages.

"After the last few weeks of irregular operations in Newark, caused by many factors including airport construction, we reached out to the FAA and received a waiver allowing us to temporarily adjust our schedule there for the remainder of the summer," read a memo to employees from United COO Jon Roitman.

Shares of United Airlines (UAL) fell 3.15% on Thursday and are off 16.13% on a year-to-date basis, which is actually the 4th best share price return of the 20 publicly-traded airline stocks.