Flights Could Be Disrupted Across U.S., Transportation Secretary Warns
As Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the nation's busiest airports, struggled with technological disruptions and staffing shortages, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned in a television interview on Sunday that more U.S. airports could face similar disruptions as the busy summer travel season approached.
Mr. Duffy, who recently announced a multibillion-dollar proposal to modernize and overhaul the country's air traffic control system, said in the interview that he would meet with the leaders of major airlines this week to create a plan for scaling back flights at Newark. He did not offer additional details, including by how much flights could be reduced.
The comments came after an air traffic control facility that guides planes at Newark had a brief radar outage on Friday, after a similar 90-second outage at the end of last month. Another air traffic equipment outage on Sunday morning led to a ground stop for about 45 minutes for flights arriving to Newark, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The problems have resulted in major delays and cancellations, led to safety concerns for travelers and emerged as a major challenge for the Trump administration.
When asked whether it remained safe to fly out of Newark, Mr. Duffy maintained that 'we are the safest airspace,' and added that he and his family regularly traveled through the airport.
Still, Mr. Duffy said that the country and Congress had not paid enough attention to improving the 'antiquated systems' across major airports, and described the recent issues at Newark as a consequence of 'stress on an old network.'
'What you see in Newark is going to happen in other places across the country,' Mr. Duffy said an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press With Kristen Welker.' 'It has to be fixed.'
He added, 'I'm concerned about the whole airspace.'
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on social media that the Sunday outage was the result of a 'telecommunications issue' at a Philadelphia facility that guides aircraft in and out of Newark airspace.
The agency said that it 'briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed,' and that operations had returned to normal by about 10:50 a.m.
The troubles at the nation's airports have created significant havoc for travelers, stranding some far from their destinations. In Georgia, an equipment outage on Sunday led to a ground stop for more than an hour at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the area's largest airport, according to the F.A.A.
After the brief outage at Newark in April, in which air traffic controllers were temporarily unable to communicate with pilots or see aircraft, there were thousands of cancellations and delays stretching more than five hours at Newark in the following days.
Mr. Duffy's pitch to improve air travel includes investments in digitizing flight data management tools and upgrading the radio systems controllers use to communicate with pilots, though many details remain unclear, and his plan would require approval from Congress. He is also seeking to extend the retirement age for air traffic controllers.
The Federal Aviation Administration has attributed many of the problems at Newark to equipment failures and shortages of controllers and other staff members. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, though, the F.A.A. warned travelers at Newark to brace for more misery because of staffing issues: Some arriving flights were delayed by an average of two hours and 32 minutes.
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