Growing concern at Newark airport as air traffic controllers walk off the job: “The technology that we are using is old”
United Airlines has been forced to cut 10% of flights at Newark hub due to air traffic control issues.
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said last week that the company will begin to cancel more than 30 daily flights a day at their Newark hub due to government equipment failures and air traffic control staffing issues.
“Technology that FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed – resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans,” Kirby said in an email to customers. “Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for (Newark) walked off the job.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who intends to propose a plan this week to fix badly crumbling air traffic control infrastructure stated: “The technology that we are using is old. That’s what is causing the outages and delays we are seeing at Newark.”
Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau said the agency has a team investigating the interruptions at Newark. “We need to make sure the controllers have the proper equipment and that they’re obviously appropriately staffed,” he added.
The FAA is apparently 3,500 controllers short of targeted staffing. A persistent shortage of controllers has delayed flights and, at many facilities, controllers are working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks.
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