The Headaches at Newark Airport Could Continue For A While
Since last week, Newark Liberty International Airport has experienced frequent delays and flight cancellations, affecting both inbound and outgoing travel.
Over 500 flights were affected on Monday, according to FlightAware, and already Tuesday, there have been 44 canceled outgoing flights and over 200 flights impacted by the issues.
Newark's problems stem from equipment failures, a shortage of air traffic control staffers and the closure of one of the facility's busiest runways. Right now, it looks like it might be a while before things get better.
On the runway front, NJ.com's Jeff Goldman wrote Tuesday that Runway 4L-22R, which handles nearly 47% of the airport's flight activity, is closed until June 15 for renovation. The runway reopens next month, but from Sept. 1 through the end of the year, will be closed on weekends between 11 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Sunday.
'Due to the volume of flights arriving and departing EWR (the closure) will significantly affect carriers' ability to operate reliably and on time,' federal officials said last November. 'Absent increased scheduling flexibility during the construction period, the FAA anticipates a high likelihood of congestion, delays, and cancellations at EWR.'
United Airlines Boeing 777-200ER wide body passenger aircraft spotted during take off, departing from Newark Liberty International Airport EWR serving New York Metropolitan area. The B777 airplane has the registration tail number N783UA and is powered by 2x Pratt & Whitney PW4090 jet engines. United Airlines with headquarters in Chicago is the largest airline in the world by destination and fleet size member of Star Alliance aviation alliance group. Newark, United States on November 2024 (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto/Getty Images
As for the equipment trouble, Galen Munroe, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, revealed Monday that back on April 28, a Philadelphia control center responsible for sorting flight traffic for Newark 'temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control,' and were 'unable to see, hear, or talk to them.'
Obviously, that's incredibly alarming, and the aftereffects of the outage have also been devastating. Munroe said that a number of controllers from the Philadelphia operation have utilized their rights under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, which allows employees who are injured or involved in a traumatic event at work to take leave without penalty.
As a result, Newark is short-staffed, and though the FAA has pledged to hire 2,000 new traffic controllers nationwide this year, those efforts aren't going to help the second-busiest airport in the New York area at the moment.
"Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it's now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead," United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a letter to customers last Friday.
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - MAY 05: A monitor shows flight delays at Newark International Airport on May 05, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. Delays and cancellations at one of the nation's busiest airports have persisted for about a week, with these disruptions continuing into Monday morning. Air traffic control outages, runway construction, and an announcement by United Airlines that over 20% of FAA controllers at Newark walked off the job have all contributed to delays and cancellations. (Photo by)United States Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Monday a plan to "radically transform" air traffic control and fix a problem that has been brewing for decades.
'We're going to build a brand-new air traffic control system — from new telecom, to new radars, to new infrastructure. We're bringing on new air traffic controllers,' Duffy said.
Duffy added that officials have slowed traffic down in Newark to help alleviate the congestion and make commuters "feel safe."
'When you have an incident like this, you want to make sure that people are safe,' Duffy said. 'And so, you just have less departures out of the airport until we feel comfortable and safe that the system isn't going to go down again.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
FAA caps flights at Newark Airport to cut delays through 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration finalized new air traffic restrictions at Newark Liberty International Airport, saying that arrivals and departures would be limited to 34 each per hour through Oct. 25, 2025. Arrivals and departures at EWR will be further reduced on weekends from Sept. 1 through the end of the year to accommodate airport construction. The FAA previously signaled it was planning to reduce traffic at Newark in response to weeks of delays caused by equipment outages and staffing issues that hampered the airport's capacity. "The confirmed reduced rates will maintain safety while alleviating excessive flight delays at the airport due to staffing and equipment challenges. The early completion of runway construction at the airport that added to the delays will also contribute to a more efficient operation," the FAA said in a statement. "Working with airlines and the airport, the limited arrival rate already paid dividends over the Memorial Day holiday with smooth travel into and out of Newark." United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, touted the airport's on-time rate over the previous week. "Newark (EWR) is the most reliable airport in the New York City area this week," the airline said in a statement. United noted that 79% of its departures from Newark were on time between June 2 and June 5, while 88% of arrivals landed at Newark on time, and 90% of the airline's flights departing Newark arrived at their destinations on time. At a press conference announcing the early completion of a runway reconstruction project at the airport, alongside Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, United CEO Scott Kirby said that travelers in and out of Newark will be able to take advantage of great airfare deals this summer. "We did get well behind on bookings because of the perception issues around Newark recently, so that means more seats are available, which means the fares are better than they're probably going to ever be in the years to come, so now's the time to book your vacation if you want to go to Europe or you want to head across the country," he said. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Newark flight? FAA reduces traffic to improve on-time performance
USA Today
7 hours ago
- USA Today
FAA caps flights at Newark Airport to cut delays through 2025
FAA caps flights at Newark Airport to cut delays through 2025 Show Caption Hide Caption How Newark airport issues could affect your summer travel plans Summer flyers beware: Newark airport delays and what to expect The Federal Aviation Administration finalized new air traffic restrictions at Newark Liberty International Airport, saying that arrivals and departures would be limited to 34 each per hour through Oct. 25, 2025. Arrivals and departures at EWR will be further reduced on weekends from Sept. 1 through the end of the year to accommodate airport construction. The FAA previously signaled it was planning to reduce traffic at Newark in response to weeks of delays caused by equipment outages and staffing issues that hampered the airport's capacity. "The confirmed reduced rates will maintain safety while alleviating excessive flight delays at the airport due to staffing and equipment challenges. The early completion of runway construction at the airport that added to the delays will also contribute to a more efficient operation," the FAA said in a statement. "Working with airlines and the airport, the limited arrival rate already paid dividends over the Memorial Day holiday with smooth travel into and out of Newark." United Airlines, which operates a major hub at Newark, touted the airport's on-time rate over the previous week. "Newark (EWR) is the most reliable airport in the New York City area this week," the airline said in a statement. United noted that 79% of its departures from Newark were on time between June 2 and June 5, while 88% of arrivals landed at Newark on time, and 90% of the airline's flights departing Newark arrived at their destinations on time. At a press conference announcing the early completion of a runway reconstruction project at the airport, alongside Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, United CEO Scott Kirby said that travelers in and out of Newark will be able to take advantage of great airfare deals this summer. "We did get well behind on bookings because of the perception issues around Newark recently, so that means more seats are available, which means the fares are better than they're probably going to ever be in the years to come, so now's the time to book your vacation if you want to go to Europe or you want to head across the country," he said. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump brings the BOOM! New order opens skies across US to supersonic flights
President Donald Trump has ordered the Federal Aviation Administration to scrap a longstanding ban on supersonic air travel across the U.S. and replace it with a to-be-determined set of regulations that will allow faster-than-sound travel so long as the sonic booms it creates do not breach certain noise limitations. In an executive order signed on Friday, Trump directed the FAA administrator to begin the process of repealing a section of the Code of Federal Regulations that prohibits anyone in the United States from flying a civilian aircraft 'at a true flight Mach number greater than 1.' That regulation was imposed in April 1973, at a time when the British and French governments were jointly developing Concorde, a supersonic airliner that had a cruising speed in excess of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. Because aircraft that break the sound barrier create shockwaves that produce loud sounds, known as sonic booms, the U.S. government banned supersonic flight over the U.S. out of concern over disruptive noise from supersonic jets criss-crossing the country. As a result, Concorde was limited to subsonic speeds when arriving or leaving American airports, only crossing the sound barrier during transit over the Atlantic Ocean on routes between New York's JFK airport and London. Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told reporters that Trump's order 'seeks to revolutionize supersonic aviation in the United States' by allowing for modern aircraft to fly faster than sound over the continental U.S. 'The US used to be the global leader in this technology, but stifling regulations have grounded progress for generations. The reality is that Americans should be able to fly from New York to LA in under four hours,' he said. Kratsios added that 'advances in aerospace engineering, material science and noise reduction' by new startups working on faster-than-sound passenger aircraft can make supersonic travel 'safe, sustainable and commercially viable' and noted that the longstanding American ban on such flights had ' grounded supersonic passenger flight and weakened our global competitiveness in aviation.' 'Today's order fixes that,' he said. Trump's order comes just weeks after a pair of Republicans in Congress, Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and Senator Ted Budd of North Carolina, introduced legislation to direct the FAA to repeal and replace the current supersonic flight ban within a year. That legislation will no longer be necessary, as the Trump executive order directs the FAA to withdraw the ban within 180 days and launch a notice-and-comment period for replacement regulations that would be based on a noise standard rather than a strict speed limit. According to a senior administration official, the function of the new regulations would be 'to replace the effective speed standard with instead an interim noise standard, and then to have a longer term process to publish a Notice of Proposed Rule Making to result in a final rule.' That process would be 'coordinated through the White House [and] through the National Science and Technology Council' and would be based on research and development that has been going on at NASA, the Department of Defense, and 'elsewhere within the federal government,' the official said. Trump's effort to enable supersonic flight across the U.S. follows the success of the first flight of a civilian supersonic aircraft since Concorde 216 (registered as G-BOAF) made its' final flight to Bristol Filton Airport in 2003. In January, Boom Supersonic's XB-1 aircraft reached a speed of Mach 1.122 during a 34-minute flight over California's Mojave Desert. The test flight, just eight days into Trump's second term, produced no audible sonic boom — or at least not one that was heard from the ground during the flight. The company says its' proposed Overture passenger jet will cut a trip from Los Angeles to Washington to three hours and 15 minutes, more than an hour less than the current duration of such a flight, while producing no sonic booms that are audible from the ground. It attributes this to atmospheric effects that cause the sound to reflect off layers in the atmosphere and travel upward, rather than downward. It also claims to be able to cut flights over water by even more time by reaching even higher speeds.
