Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is like, planning to cut down on the number of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport for the next few weeks. New Jersey’s biggest airport is struggling with radar outages and a bunch of flight delays and cancellations because there aren’t enough air traffic controllers.
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Duffy mentioned that he’s gonna meet up with all the airlines that fly out of Newark this week to figure out how many flights to reduce. The reduction is gonna vary, with a bigger cut happening in the afternoons when there are more international flights coming in and making the airport super busy.
“We want to make sure that if you book a flight, it’s actually gonna take off, you know?” he said. “That’s the main goal. So you don’t show up at the airport, wait forever, and then your flight gets delayed.”
The Federal Aviation Administration shared that the radar at the Philadelphia facility that guides planes to and from Newark airport went out for like 90 seconds at 3:55 a.m. on Friday, which is like, similar to what happened on April 28.
Since mid-April, there have been an average of 34 canceled arrivals per day at Newark, according to the FAA. The number of delays has been going up during the day, from around five in the mornings to 16 in the evenings. These delays usually last for like 85 to 137 minutes on average.
The Trump administration recently proposed this massive overhaul of the U.S. air traffic control system. The plan includes setting up six new air traffic control centers and upgrading technology and communications at all air traffic facilities across the country over the next three or four years.
Duffy also mentioned that he’s thinking about raising the mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers from 56 to 61 since there’s a shortage of about 3,000 people in that role. He’s planning to offer a 20% upfront bonus to air traffic controllers to keep them on the job. But a lot of them retire after 25 years, usually around the age of 50.
“These fixes aren’t gonna happen overnight,” Duffy said. “But as we go on, with older folks staying longer and new people joining in, we can make up for that 3,000-person gap.”
Increasing the number of air traffic controllers goes against a key goal of the Trump administration, which is cutting jobs in almost every other federal agency. However, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby mentioned on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Duffy deserves some credit for focusing on FAA safety functions and making sure they’re separate from cost-cutting efforts.
United Airlines has already reduced its schedule at Newark and will be meeting with Duffy later this week. Kirby thinks there will be a bigger cut in flights until June 15 when construction on one of Newark’s runways is supposed to be finished. But he believes there will still be some reductions throughout the summer.
“We have fewer flights, but we’re keeping everything safe and making sure the planes land safely,” Kirby said. “Safety is the top priority, so I’m not worried about that. I am worried about delays and how they affect customers.”
