FAA bans parallel landings at SFO
The FAA is prohibiting simultaneous parallel landings at San Francisco International for six months during runway repaving, a move expected to cut capacity and increase delays for up to a quarter of flights. The restriction illustrates how regulatory and operational constraints are creating new demand for wake‑turbulence and airport‑capacity modeling work. (aviationa2z.com; foxbusiness.com)
FAA announced the operational change on March 31, 2026 and told regulators and carriers it would lower SFO’s maximum arrival rate from 54 flights per hour to 36 flights per hour. (bloomberg.com) San Francisco International closed Runway 1R (1R/19L) beginning March 30, 2026 for repaving and taxiway upgrades, with the airport listing an expected reopening date of October 2, 2026. (flysfo.com) The FAA said the approach change followed a review of long‑used procedures, cited two recent incidents (including a near miss near San Antonio), and indicated the restriction on side‑by‑side visual approaches will remain separate from the runway project. (usnews.com) SFO operations staff warned that the combined effect of the runway work and the FAA approach restriction pushes an earlier forecast of roughly 15% of arrivals experiencing 30‑minute delays to an estimated ~25% of arriving flights facing at least 30‑minute delays. (sfgate.com) Federal and airport planning documents show the FAA’s Performance and Capacity analysis team and SFO’s own “Ultimate Capacity & Delay” simulation work rely on fast‑time simulation and surface modeling to test staggered approach procedures and runway configurations during construction. (faa.gov) United Airlines accounts for roughly half of passenger traffic at SFO and Alaska about 10%, concentrating the operational and schedule impacts on those carriers’ hub networks; airport officials have said arrival rates could recover toward about 45 per hour only after construction and under the revised approach rules. (insurancejournal.com)
