The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States announced on May 7th a series of technological upgrades and staffing measures to address the recent widespread flight disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in New Jersey caused by air traffic control errors and staffing shortages.
Last week, there was a significant outage at the Philadelphia air traffic control center that lasted 90 seconds, disrupting radar and radio communications. This led to 624, 580, and 520 delayed or canceled flights at Newark Airport on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday respectively, exposing issues with the aging aviation infrastructure in the United States.
The FAA stated that they will be adding three high-bandwidth data connections between the New York and Philadelphia air traffic control facilities to improve system stability and redundancy. They also plan to upgrade the existing copper wire communications equipment to fiber optic communication lines. The Philadelphia air traffic control center will deploy a new backup system to prevent similar paralysis incidents in the future.
Currently, the Philadelphia air traffic control facility only has 22 fully certified air traffic controllers, with 21 others in training, including 10 undergoing on-the-job training. The FAA has pledged to expedite the recruitment and training process to alleviate staffing shortages.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that a national air traffic control system modernization plan will be unveiled on Thursday, including equipment upgrades and facility enhancements.
Duffy also revealed that they are considering convening a meeting with all airlines operating in and out of Newark Airport to coordinate flight management mechanisms and prevent further deterioration of the situation.
As one of the three major airports in the greater New York area, Newark Airport serves as a primary aviation gateway on the East Coast, welcoming over 48 million passengers last year. Aviation experts point out that “when New York is in chaos, the nation is in chaos,” underscoring the urgent need to address the outdated infrastructure and staffing shortages in the U.S. aviation management system.