SFO parallel landings banned
The FAA has permanently banned San Francisco International Airport’s parallel landings, cutting arrival capacity and triggering months of higher delays and cancellations as travel demand rises. Airlines and passengers should expect longer waits, more missed connections, and shifting gates through the spring and summer travel season. (simpleflying.com)
FAA posted a March 31, 2026 statement saying pilots may no longer conduct side‑by‑side visual approaches to SFO’s parallel east‑west runways and that controllers must instead sequence staggered approaches. (faa.gov) The agency said the new procedure reduces the airport’s practical arrival capacity from about 54 flights per hour to 36 flights per hour. (usnews.com) FAA officials told reporters they do not plan to lift the staggered‑approach requirement once the airport’s repaving work is completed. (usnews.com) SFO closed Runway 1R for repaving on March 30, 2026, with the project scheduled to run through October 2, 2026, removing the two north‑south runways from service during that six‑month window. (flysfo.com) Airport officials revised their delay forecasts upward, saying the combination of the runway project and the FAA procedure change raises the share of arriving flights expected to face delays of 30 minutes or more from roughly 15% to about 25%. (kron4.com) SFO’s main east‑west pair (runways 28L/28R) are spaced about 750 feet centerline‑to‑centerline and have previously relied on Precision Runway Monitor / Simultaneous Offset Instrument Approach procedures to support close‑parallel operations while the FAA says it is exploring operational and technical options to safely increase the airport’s arrival rate. (faa.gov )
