As Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the nation struggled, technological disruptions And staff shortages, transport secretary Sean Duffy warned on Sunday in a television interview that more American airports could be confronted with similar disturbances as the busy summer spring season approached.
Mr Duffy, who recently announced a proposal of millions of dollars Modernizing and Review the country’s air traffic control systemsaid in the interview that he would meet the leaders of Major Airlines this week to make a plan for scaling back flights on Newark. He did not offer additional details, also by how many flights could be reduced.
The comments came after an air traffic control facility that leads to aircraft Newark had a short radar fault on Fridayafter one Similar 90-second malfunction at the end of last month. Another failure of air traffic equipment on Sunday morning led to a basic stop According to the Federal Aviation Administration for about 45 minutes for flights arriving to Newark.
The Problems have led to major delays and cancellations, led to safety problems for travelers and emerged as a major challenge for the Trump administration.
When asked whether it remained safe to fly from Newark, Mr Duffy claimed that “we are the safest airspace”, and added that he and his family regularly traveled through the airport.
Yet Mr Duffy said that the country and the congress had not paid enough attention to improving the “outdated systems” at large airports, and described the recent issues at Newark as a result of “stress on an old network”.
“What you see in Newark will happen in other places throughout the country,” Mr. Duffy said an interview about NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.” “It must be solved.”
He added: “I’m worried about the entire airspace.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said in one Explanation on social media That the outage on Sunday was the result of a “telecommunications problem” in a facility in Philadelphia that leads planes in and from Newark Airspace.
The agency said the “short plane on and out of the airport delayed, while we made sure that redundancies worked as designed”, and that the activities had returned to normal at around 10:50 am
The problems at the airports of the country have caused considerable damage for travelers and have presented far from their destinations. In Georgia, a malfunction of equipment on Sunday led more than an hour to a basic stop at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the largest airport in the area, According to the FAA.
After the short fault in Newark in April, in which air traffic controllers were temporarily unable to communicate with pilots or see aircraft, there were thousands of cancellations and delays that extended more than five hours at Newark in the following days.
Mr Duffy’s pitch to improve air travel includes investments in digitizing flight data management aids and upgrading the radio systems that controllers use to communicate with pilots, although many details remain unclear, and his plan would require approval of the congress. He also tries to extend the retirement age for air traffic controllers.
The Federal Aviation Administration has attributed many of the problems at Newark to errors in the field of equipment and shortages of controllers and other staff members. The port authority of New York and New Jersey did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
On Sunday morning, however, the FAA warned travelers in Newark Brace for more misery Due to personnel problems: some upcoming flights were delayed on average two hours and 32 minutes.
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