The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended flights to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Sunday morning following another malfunction in air traffic control equipment, NBC News confirmed.
“The FAA briefly reduced the arrival and departure of aircraft from the airport while we ensured that the facilities were operating as expected. Operations have returned to normal,” the FAA said in a statement on X.
You may be interested in: Dominicans have been stranded for 24 hours at Newark airport
The FAA did not provide further details on why it decreed the interruption of operations at 08:15 am local time, but said it was a telecommunications issue at the TRACON Area C of Philadelphia, a traffic control facility that guides flights arriving and departing from Newark. A breakdown occurred on April 28 that caused significant delays at the airport.
The failure occurs while Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that he plans to reduce the number of flights entering and leaving the largest airport in New Jersey during the “coming weeks.”
More Read
For several days, the airport has been struggling with radar disruptions and numerous flight delays and cancellations due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.
“We want to have a number of flights that, if you book your flight, you know it’s going to fly, right?” he expressed. “That’s the priority. So that you don’t arrive at the airport, wait four hours and then be delayed.”
The FAA reported that the radar at the Philadelphia facility that directs aircraft to and from Newark Airport went down for 90 seconds at 3:55 a.m. on Friday, similar to an incident that occurred on April 28.
More Read
In statements to NBC News’ program Meet the Press, Duffy said that this week he will convene a meeting with all the airlines flying from Newark to determine the reduction, and added that it will vary, with a greater reduction in the afternoons, when international flight arrivals make the airport more crowded.
There was an average of 34 arrival cancellations per day since mid-April at Newark, according to the FAA, with the number of delays increasing throughout the day from an average of five in the mornings to 16 at night. They usually last between approximately 85 and 137 minutes.
The FAA also temporarily reduced arrivals at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday due to a problem with runway equipment.
The Trump administration proposed on Thursday a multi-billion dollar reform to the U.S. air traffic control system that includes six new air traffic control centers and improvements in technology and communications at all facilities across the country over the next three or four years.
Duffy said on Sunday that he also plans to raise the mandatory retirement age for air traffic controllers from 56 to 61, as he tries to manage a shortage of approximately 3,000 people in that specialized position.
He plans to offer them an initial bonus of 20% to stay at work. However, he assured that many choose to retire after 25 years of service, which means that many retire around the age of 50.
More Read
“These are not overnight solutions,” Duffy commented. “But as we move forward —one, two years, older men at work, young people entering, men and women — we can make up that difference of 3,000 people.”
