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“There was a telecommunications issue at Philadelphia TRACON Area C, which guides aircraft in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport airspace,” the FAA said in a statement. “The FAA briefly slowed aircraft in and out of the airport while we ensured redundancies were working as designed.”
The 11 a.m. outage marked the latest disruption at Newark Liberty, which diverted or canceled dozens of flights on Friday after air traffic controllers lost communication with pilots.
On Sunday, departing planes faced a 45-minute ground stop, causing widespread delays. It was the third such incident since April 28, linked to Philadelphia TRACON, the regional control center that services Newark Liberty, CNN reported.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on NBC’s "Meet the Press" that his department will limit flights to and from the airport for the "next several weeks."
Duffy told host Kristen Welker he plans to meet with airline executives to discuss the logistics of the flight reductions, adding that the limits will vary throughout the day, especially in the afternoons, as international arrivals increase.
“We want to have a number of flights that if you book your flight, you know it’s going to fly, right?” he said. “That is the priority. So you don’t get to the airport, wait four hours, and then get delayed.”
Duffy attributed the repeated outages to outdated equipment. The Trump administration has announced a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the country’s air traffic control technology, CNN reported. That includes a new communications line between Newark Liberty and the Philadelphia TRACON.
The FAA is also grappling with a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers, a crisis that’s amplifying delays and staffing challenges, according to the Guardian.
To address the shortfall, Duffy said the department plans to offer bonuses and increased pay to attract new recruits. He also intends to raise the mandatory retirement age from 56 to 61 to retain experienced controllers.
“These are not overnight fixes,” Duffy said. “But as we go up — one, two years, older guys on the job, younger guys coming in, men and women — we can make up that 3,000-person difference.”
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