Chaos Prompts Federal Intervention At NJ Airport

NEWARK, NJ — There’s a plan in the works to fix the chronic delays and cancellations that have been plaguing Newark Airport in New Jersey, federal officials say.

For the past week, passengers have been pulling their hair out at Newark Airport in New Jersey. A chronic lack of air traffic controllers, malfunction-prone equipment and ongoing runway construction are being blamed for many of the problems. Read More: Newark Airport ‘Chaos’ Continues (5 Reasons Behind The Delays)

The equipment issues caused a nerve-wracking experience on April 28, when air traffic controllers in Philadelphia – who have taken over the duties of separating and sequencing aircraft in and out of Newark Airport – temporarily lost contact with the planes under their guidance.

• See Related: Air Traffic Controllers Lost Contact With Planes At NJ Airport, Reports Say
• See Related: Newark Airport Delays Come As Some Controllers Are On Trauma Leave

Several elected officials have joined a growing chorus of frustrated passengers in a call for change, including Gov. Phil Murphy, who recently said that “decades of underinvestment” and “inadequate air traffic control staffing” have created a frail system across the nation – not just in New Jersey.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has linked the tech failures to an “incredibly old” and outdated system, which still uses floppy disks and copper wires.

“The system that we’re using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today,” Duffy said at a news conference on Friday, adding that the system is safe but prone to causing delays.

FAA: ‘HERE’S WHAT WE’RE DOING ABOUT IT’

On Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the agency is taking immediate steps to fix the chronic delays at Newark Airport. Plans include “accelerating technological and logistical improvements” and increasing air traffic controller staffing, the FAA said.

Here’s the current situation, the agency explained:

“The FAA has been slowing arrivals and departures at Newark Liberty International Airport due to runway construction at Newark and staffing and technology issues at Philadelphia TRACON, which guides aircraft in and out of the airport … The FAA system – called STARS - that processes radar data for Newark is based in New York. Telecommunications lines feed this data from New York to the Philadelphia TRACON, where controllers handle Newark arrivals and departures.”

The FAA will be taking the following actions, spokespeople said:

• Adding three new, high-bandwidth telecommunications connections between the New York-based STARS and the Philadelphia TRACON. This will provide more speed, reliability and redundancy.
• Replacing copper telecommunications connections with updated fiberoptic technology that also have greater bandwidth and speed.
• Deploying a temporary backup system to the Philadelphia TRACON that will provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiberoptic network.
• Establishing a STARS hub at the Philadelphia TRACON so that the facility does not depend on a telecommunications feed from the New York STARS hub.
• Increasing controller staffing. The area in the Philadelphia TRACON that handles Newark traffic has 22 fully certified controllers and 21 controllers and supervisors in training. Ten of those 21 controllers and supervisors are receiving on-the-job training. All 10 are certified on at least one position and two are certified on multiple positions. We have a healthy pipeline with training classes filled through July 2026. 

The public can access real time information about the status of Newark and every airport at www.fly.faa.gov.

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