NEW YORK (AP) — Travelers flying to or from Newark Liberty International Airport faced significant delays and flight cancelations on Saturday because of a scarcity of air traffic controllers, which is part of a broader issue affecting the entire country under the Trump administration. has pledged to fix.
The busy airport Suburban areas outside of New York City faced disturbances throughout the entire week. Blaming the issues continued. Federal Aviation Administration's Reportedly due to an alleged inability to tackle "long-standing" issues with the air-traffic control system, United Airlines has decided to reduce its Newark flight schedule by 35 daily departures beginning this Saturday.
United Airlines' CEO Scott Kirby mentioned that the system utilized for managing aircraft at Newark Airport malfunctioned multiple times recently. He stated that these technical issues led to significant disruptions such as flight delays, cancellations, and diversions. These challenges became even worse when over 20% of the air traffic controllers at Newark left their posts.
"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, incoming flights were experiencing delays of over three hours, whereas the wait time for outgoing flights had decreased to an average of 30 minutes. “misery map” kept up-to-date by the flight tracking firm FlightAware indicated the cascading impact on airports in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, Dallas, and various other urban centers.
United Airlines operates the most flights out of Newark by far, and 35 flights represents about 10% of the round-trip domestic schedule operated by the carrier and its regional United Express network, according to information on the company's website.
The Newark Liberty International Airport was indicated. both staffing issues and “construction” when it warned travelers about delays on Thursday.
The Trump administration says it’s been trying to “supercharge” The aviation control personnel team and take steps to tackle the issue nation's shortage of controllers The United States Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy , on Thursday announced a program to recruit new controllers and give existing ones incentives not to retire.
The National Air TrafficControllers Association, a labor union, stated back then that these measures might assist with addressing personnel deficiencies; however, they also mentioned that the system is “ long overdue for technology and infrastructure upgrades.”
Duffy said on Friday that he visited with “our hard working air traffic controllers as we work to fix these equipment outages caused by outdated technology.”
United's decision to pare back its flight schedule in Newark come at an already uncertain time for U.S. airlines. Potential customers across the industry are reconsidering whether to fly for work or for vacation given all the unknowns about what President Donald Trump's trade war will do to the economy .
Uncertainty is so high that United recently made the unusual move to offer two separate forecasts for how it could perform financially this year: one if there were a recession, and one if not .
From Newark, United flies to 76 U.S. cities and 81 international destinations.
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