NEW YORK — On Saturday, travelers heading to or departing from Newark Liberty International Airport faced significant delays and flight cancellations attributed to a scarcity of air traffic controllers. This issue is not confined to this airport but spans across the country, and the Trump administration has committed to addressing it.
The bustling airport near New York City faced disturbances throughout the week. Blaming the Federal Aviation Administration for not tackling longstanding issues within the air traffic control system, United Airlines decided to reduce its Newark flight schedule by 35 daily departures beginning Saturday.
United CEO Scott Kirby said the technology used to manage planes at the New Jersey airport failed more than once in recent days. The flight delays, cancellations and diversions the equipment problems caused were compounded when more than one-fifth of Newark’s traffic controllers “walked off the job,” he said.
“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,” Kirby wrote in a
letter to customers
.
Airport status reports from the FAA said staffing issues were causing average delays of nearly two hours and ones as long as five hours for flights scheduled to arrive at Newark on Saturday morning. Departures were delayed by an average of 45 minutes, and average delays of 45 minutes for departures on Saturday morning, according to the status reports.
By late afternoon, arriving flights were running more than three hours behind schedule, while the delay for departing flights had shortened to a half-hour on average. The
“misery map”
maintained by flight tracking company FlightAware showed the ripple effect on airports in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and other cities.
United Airlines runs significantly more flights from Newark than any other airline, with these 35 trips accounting for roughly 10% of their total round-trip domestic itinerary managed both directly and through their regional partner, United Express.
according to information
on the company’s website.
Newark Liberty International Airport pointed to
both staff shortages and “construction”
when it warned travelers about delays on Thursday.
The Trump administration says it’s been trying to “supercharge” the air traffic controller workforce and make moves to address the nation’s shortage of controllers. The U.S. transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, on Thursday announced a program to recruit new controllers and give existing ones incentives not to retire.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, a workers’ union, said at the time that those moves could help address staffing shortages, but it also said the system is “long overdue for technology and infrastructure upgrades.”
On Friday, Duffy mentioned that he met with “the diligent air traffic controllers as we strive to resolve these service disruptions triggered by obsolete technology.”
United’s choice to reduce its flight operations in Newark has occurred during an already volatile period for U.S. airlines. Due to the uncertainties surrounding President Donald Trump’s trade conflict and its potential impact on the economy, prospective travelers throughout the sector are reassessing their plans to fly for business or leisure purposes.
The uncertainty is such that United has taken an uncommon step of providing two distinct financial projections for this year: one scenario assuming a recession occurs, and another supposing it does not.
From Newark, United operates flights to 76 U.S. cities and 81 international destinations.
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