On April 28, Newark Airport faced severe delays after the air traffic controllers lost radar images and communications with an aircraft for 90 seconds. After that, five air traffic controllers took a trauma leave of absence, and the airport itself shut down for two hours, diverting 65 flights, canceling 150, and delaying another 350. Newark air traffic controllers encountered several more telecommunications outages in the following days, leading to persistent delays and cancellations, according to NJ.com.
In addition to the telecommunications issues, Newark is facing staffing shortages, outdated technology, and bad weather, and the airport is down a runway as it continues construction on one of the busiest runways, contributing to the mass delays, according to NPR.
Air traffic controllers, who hold the vital job of guiding planes, are in high demand, but training for the job is highly specialized. There are 22 certified controllers at Newark, with 16 openings, as their target employment is 38. The lack of employees has had a significant impact on flights. In fact, on Monday, May 12, there were reports that only one or two fully certified controllers were working, even though Newark should have been equipped with 14 controllers, according to The Spokesman-Review.
When the air traffic controllers had radar outages, controllers could not locate the planes they were guiding. Controllers relied on the backup system when the primary system failed, but the backup software also failed, according to The New York Times.
Adding to the problems, on April 15, Newark closed one of its three runways for construction, and the closure is expected to continue through June 15, only resuming on weekdays from September until the new year, according to The New York Times. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that the closing of this runway has led to the cancellation of between one and four flights per hour.
Flyers are not the only ones affected by the havoc at Newark; airlines are also affected. United Airlines operates 70% of Newark’s flights, and Newark is one of only eight of United’s major hubs.
“This is decades in the making, so there’s plenty of people take the blame. I don’t care who takes the blame,” United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “All I care about is getting it fixed and moving forward, and getting us and getting our customers the world class air traffic control system that the people of the United States deserve.”
Kirby continued in a letter published by Forbes, demanding that the FAA reduce the number of approved flights per hour. “[E]very other large capacity constrained airport in the world uses slots to make sure that the number of scheduled flights in any given hour does not exceed the airport’s maximum capacity,” he said.
The FAA has responded by installing a software upgrade to help prevent outages. The Administration has also decided to limit the number of flights per hour to 56, as construction continues. According to The New York Times, it will gradually raise the limit until reaching 68 flights per hour in mid-June. The question of the shortage of certified controllers remains to be remedied.
