For the second-straight week, flight delays at Newark Liberty International Airport are stackin’ like luggage.
The Federal Aviation Administration is trying to mitigate staffing shortages (a long-running issue), tech failures, and bad weather hitting the Northeast corridor (Boston to D.C.). Thousands of flights have been delayed and hundreds canceled; United Airlines alone has cut 35 daily round-trips from its Newark hub.
United’s CEO said the final straw was when ~20% of air traffic controllers “walked off the job”—including at least five now on 45-day stress leave—after a 90-second radar outage led to “dozens of diverted flights.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the FAA plans to hire 2,000 new controllers this year. But with a 3,000-controller shortfall and 18+ months of training for new hires, the runway to recovery appears long.