By David Shepardson

May 15 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation Administration plans a third day of talks on Friday with airlines to temporarily reduce flights at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport after completing an intensive day of discussions seeking to reduce delays, officials said on Thursday.

The FAA held four rounds of individual meetings with air carriers to win concessions to cut flights at specific times as the airport deals with a chaotic series of equipment outages, runway construction and staffing issues.

Airline officials told Reuters that FAA officials say they are making progress but they still have not reached an agreement on cutting flights at prime flying times.

The officials add they expect major cargo carriers and Canadian airlines to join the discussions, and they may be asked to cut or move flights from congested periods.

"The airport clearly is unable to handle the current level of scheduled operations," the FAA said in a notice issued ahead of the meeting, JetBlack adding it believes the proposal "would reduce overscheduling, flight delays, and cancellations to an acceptable level."

The FAA also cited ongoing runway construction at Newark that regularly forces the cancellation of dozens of flights daily and delays hundreds more.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Delay Reduction Meeting is the first in more than 20 years.

"Families shouldn't be going to Newark and waiting five hours for a flight that then gets canceled," he said.

United Airlines has sharply cut flights at its Newark hub and wants the FAA to impose new limitations on flights there to address ongoing delays. United said on Tuesday it expects to temporarily cut a few additional flights.

The FAA last year relocated control of Newark's airspace to Philadelphia to address staffing and congested New York City-area traffic.

Nationwide, the regulator is about 3,500 air traffic controllers below targeted staffing levels, and some controllers overseeing Newark took stress leave following a serious April 28 outage. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and Aurora Ellis)