Newark Airport Nearly Triples Average Flight Cancellations in Single Day As Runway Chaos Continues

Newark Airport continued experiencing major disruptions on Monday after being impacted by a new radar outage and announcing dozens of delays and cancellations.

NBC News New York reported that about 80 flights had already been cancelled as of 7:30 a.m., local time, and departures were set back an average of 19 minutes. Cancellations are already more than double the average for the airport, which saw an average of 34 arrival cancellations per day since mid-April, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the FAA is already considering a broad pullback from the airport, potentially encouraging airlines to voluntarily decrease the flights they offer for a limited period. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the plan on Sunday, saying the plan will extend for the "next several weeks."

The possibility comes as incidents mount at the airport, with three outages being reported in the past two weeks. Last Friday air controllers lost contact for about 90 seconds. Last week an unidentified air controller told MSNBC that "it is not a safe situation right now for the flying public" to fly out of Newark. "He just said that to me, and separately: 'Don't fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs,'" the controller told the network's Tom Costello.

The FAA said the situation is a result of a shortage of air traffic controllers. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is urging people to pursue the job, saying last week the department is seeking to hire at least 2,000 controllers this year.

In the meantime, however, the snags have led United Airlines to cancel 35 daily roundtrip flights from the airport due to poor technology and staffing issues.

Officials have vowed to overhaul the country's air traffic control system, which handles over 45,000 daily flights. Transportation Secretary Duffy is requesting several billions of dollars to do so. He said such sums are necessary even though over $14 billion have been invested in upgrades since 2003.

"We are on it. We are going to fix it. We are going to build a brand new system for all of you and your families and the American people," Duffy said. The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said last week the cost to modernize the system could cost $12.5 billion, but Duffy estimates his project will be more expensive.

Originally published on Latin Times

Tags

Flights