US travelers have watched chaos at Newark Airport unfold for the past 10 day. The chaos began on April 28 when the air traffic control tower at Newark airport lost radar and communications. mass delays and cancellationsThis is a major issue that affects thousands of travelers.
FlightAware reported that on May 9, the Newark Liberty International Airport, located in New Jersey, had 141 delays and 65 cancellations. Inbound flights were delayed by about two hours in their origin airports.
A shortage of standardized test instruments is one of the factors that has caused the chaos at Newark. air traffic controllers. According to, the US air travel system needs to hire approximately 3,000 air traffic control personnel to reach its full staffing levels. Airlines for AmericaThe industry lobby group is.
As the peak summer travel season Many travelers wonder if this situation in Newark will repeat itself in other airports throughout the United States. Unluckily, an expert believes that is not likely to occur.
Michael McCormick is a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a former Air Traffic Controller. He says that the shortage of air traffic control officers is a nationwide issue, but the problems in Newark are unique to the city. He says: “What happened in Newark was unique to Newark, because the move of approach control from Long Island into Philadelphia is what caused the problem.” Condé Nast Traveler.
In July 2024 the air traffic operations of Newark, also known as “approach control” by industry jargon, will be relocated to Philadelphia International Airport to try to boost staffing levels. McCormick explains that “New York Approach Control has been chronically short-staffed ever since the 1981 controller strike.” “To mitigate that, they moved the approach from Westbury, Long Island down to Philadelphia. Philadelphia has never had any problems with attracting, retaining, or training air traffic controllers.”
It is necessary to relocate the control center to Long Island. Philadelphia, the airport needed more complicated equipment. McCormick explains that the FAA established radio and Radar relays for controllers in Philadelphia to track planes in Newark’s Airspace.
The relay equipment is unique to Newark Airport and sends radio and radar communication from the old air traffic center located in Long Island, Newark, to the new location, Philadelphia. This technology is based on old hardware such as floppy disks and copper wires This has proven to be outdated and splotchy.
According to reports, on April 28, there was a 90-second outage in the technology. Bloomberg. During this blackout, controllers could not see or hear planes entering Newark’s airspace. A second blackout at Philadelphia’s facility occurred on May 9 around 3:55am. This one lasted 90 seconds. ABC News reported.
“There has been an intermittent [episodes] McCormick says that they had lost radio communication and last Monday, they also lost radar data as a consequence. When there is a loss in communication and/or radar capability, it can really impact the ability of air traffic controllers provide service to aircraft. It can quickly become chaotic and controllers and pilots are forced to find creative solutions to the problem. The controllers could alert certain flights to the fact that their radar had failed and they should contact another tower along the route. CNN reported.
