Newark Liberty International Airport has faced significant operational issues in recent months. In recent months, we’ve seen an alarming increase in flight cancellations and delays. The ongoing air traffic controller shortage is creating a dangerous crisis. Technical issues at the Philadelphia air traffic control facility, which oversees much of Newark’s flight operations, are making matters worse.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is already under complicated pressures. Just last week, two accidents caused massive, though temporary, damage to the radar and communication system at the Philadelphia facility. The trauma of these outages caused five different air traffic controllers to take 45-day trauma leaves following the first incident on April 28. In the meantime, another controller has been out on long-term medical leave. Because of this, the facility currently is staffed with only 16 certified controllers and five supervisors. This staffing level is extremely inadequate even on a day-to-day basis to safely oversee the complexity of today’s flight operations.
Prior to these operational disruptions, Newark Liberty usually operated around 38-39 flights per hour. Overall, the FAA seems bullish on the future. Once the construction of the new runway is completed, they intend to increase daily operations to 34 arrivals and 34 departures. The airport just completed a $40 million runway rehabilitation project. Because they finished almost two weeks early, this contributed to this increase.
“Completing this major portion of the runway rehabilitation 13 days ahead of schedule is a testament to the extraordinary commitment and around-the-clock efforts of construction crews and our airport staff,” – Kevin O’Toole, Port Authority Chairman.
Even with this construction project completed ahead of schedule, the air traffic controller shortage still looms large. There are now 16 specialized experienced controllers in training, and they’re counting on them to achieve certification by October. The second outage, on May 9, prompted the FAA to further improve its software at the Philadelphia facility to avoid future disruptions. Even with the recent challenges mostly met through quick actions, staffing shortages could reemerge to threaten smooth airport operations.
Here are some recent improvements the FAA has made to improve reliability. The new software was able to avert comparable issues in the same situation that occurred on May 11. The air traffic controller shortage continues to affect Newark’s ability to operate. Unfortunately, this is the reality that may continue for the short-term future.
