WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration met with six major airlines to discuss the ongoing delays at Newark Liberty International Airport.
The FAA proposes reducing flights to 68 per hour, down from more than 80. United has already agreed to cut 35 flights a day.
It all comes after several snafus at Newark, four incidents in the last two weeks, including a radar outage just days ago that left air traffic controllers unable to communicate with planes for 90 seconds.
FAA Deputy Chief Operating Officer Franklin McIntosh testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
“When we lost that first line, the second line did not kick in like it was designed to do,” explained McIntosh. “That’s what caused the disruption.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked McIntosh if, during those 90 seconds, there was a “significantly heightened danger to the flying public.” McIntosh said he didn’t believe so.
He informed lawmakers that they’re now adding another line of backup at Newark. “We are working with the telco provider along with Secretary Duffy’s leadership to actually bring in a third line of redundancy in that area to prevent this from happening again,” said McIntosh.
All of the chaos at Newark prompted delays and the cancellation of more than a thousand flights.
Meanwhile, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the Trump administration are making the case that America’s air traffic control system needs an overhaul.
“We use radar from the 1970s,” said Duffy in a news conference where he rolled out their plan. “This technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies and keep airplanes separated from one another.”
Duffy made his pitch to Congress on Wednesday, asking lawmakers for billions of dollars to build a brand new, state-of-the-art system. It would include new air traffic control centers, upgrades to telecommunications, and the replacement of hundreds of radars. They want the work done by 2028.
Democrats in that hearing criticized the administration’s prior staffing reductions and cuts to critical programs.
“This plan seems to ignore the realities of the FAA losing more than 2,000 employees this year, and assumes project timelines not yet defined by costs, access to materials, or feasibility,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC).
Duffy says they’re also working on upgrades at Newark to help with the delays and hope to make an announcement within the next week or two.
