An airport control tower is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, Latest Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images
Air traffic controllers have been under strain for years, but a 90-second equipment failure last week exposed how many years of staffing shortages, underinvestment and patchwork solutions for individuals who guide planes through a number of the world’s most congested airspace are taking their toll.
The outage also sparked tons of of flight delays, disrupting travel for 1000’s of travelers for days — again.
What happened?
On the afternoon of April 28, air traffic controllers at a facility in Philadelphia who’re accountable for guiding planes to and from Newark Liberty International Airport in Latest Jersey faced dark radar screens and were unable to discuss with planes for greater than a minute.
The outage lasted about 30 seconds. It took one other 30 to 60 seconds for aircraft to reappear on radarscopes, in response to the Federal Aviation Administration.
United Airlines’ Captain Deon Byrne check her phone as she arrives at Terminal C in Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, Latest Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images
Pilots for major U.S. airlines say they’re specially trained to handle such outages.
But an outage of even a couple of seconds “is an eternity for air traffic controllers,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
The incident, which was not the primary time equipment outages hit the ability, was so jarring some have “taken day without work to recuperate from the stress of multiple recent outages,” the FAA said.
Greater than 1,500 Newark flights were delayed last week, in response to FlightAware. United Airlines, which runs a hub out of Newark, said it was cutting 35 flights a day from its schedule to ease strain on its operation and customers.
A Newark runway has also been closed for construction, adding to disruptions.
Latest steps
On Wednesday, the FAA said it will beef up staffing on the Philadelphia facility and work to repair communication lines that feed data to controllers there for Newark flights. It said it plans to put in a short lived backup system there to “provide redundancy throughout the switch to a more reliable fiberoptic network.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is about to announce a serious upgrade plan for the U.S. air traffic control system on Thursday, which could require Congress to approve billions in additional funding.
“Now we have computers, and I kid you not, today in 2025, which are based on Windows 95 and floppy disks,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in an interview in March.
The FAA last yr said that the typical age of its towers is 40 and that almost all radar systems are approaching 40 years old. “Aging facilities add risk to the system, including risk of service disruptions,” it said.
People wait in line for a delayed flight at Newark International Airport on May 5, 2025 in Newark, Latest Jersey.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Accident draws urgency
The April 28 incident and former outages didn’t cause any accidents however the failures raised more worries about an outmoded system and chronic shortages of air traffic controllers, particularly within the busy airspace around Latest York City.
U.S. air traffic controllers handle about 45,000 flights a day overall, in response to the FAA.
The urgency to repair lingering problems reached a brand new level after a Black Hawk Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people on board the aircraft. It was the deadliest air crash in the USA since 2001.
“It took a fatal midair airline accident to occur to get everybody’s attention,” Guzzetti said.
Why is Newark such an issue?
Newark is already coping with space constraints to start with.
It handled around 414,000 flights last yr, 11% fewer than John F. Kennedy International Airport, in Queens, Latest York, in response to data from their operator, the Port Authority of Latest York and Latest Jersey. But Newark is about half JFK’s size.
Technology glitches and staffing shortfalls have been especially hard on Newark in recent days. Last yr, the FAA moved controllers who handle Newark from a facility on Long Island, Latest York — where planes are also sequenced to and from LaGuardia Airport and JFK in Queens — to a distant station in Philadelphia. The move was meant to ease congestion and strain on the Long Island facility, but there are still issues.
An inside view of Newark Airport as travelers are facing eight straight days of massive delays, United Airlines canceling routes and staffing shortages in Newark, Latest Jersey, United States, on May 06, 202
Mostafa Bassim | Anadolu | Getty Images
Air traffic staffing shortages have vexed airline executives who’re desperate to capitalize on strong demand but are constrained and face high costs attributable to an absence of controllers.
“Take note, 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 variety of planes which are scheduled to operate there within the weeks and months ahead,” United CEO Scott Kirby told customers on Friday, announcing schedule cuts.
Before April 26, 4 flights a day were canceled at Newark in April, on average, but that rose to 39 a day through Monday, in response to aviation analytics firm Cirium. About 80% of flights were on schedule in April before that date, but dropped to 63%, “far below industry norms,” Cirium said.
Slowing it down
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to the media outside the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
Duffy has said air travel is secure. After a visit to the Philadelphia facility last week, he said that the FAA will slow, if not halt, arrivals altogether if there may be a shortage of air traffic controllers.
United’s CEO, Kirby, told employees in a memo Wednesday that flying to and from Newark is secure. He said the carrier’s pilots have 1000’s of hours of experience and training on procedures to “follow to re-establish communication if controllers lose radio contact to navigate the airplane safely to its destination.”
Airlines have sought capability limits to assist the congestion, and the last disruption was no exception.
“United has been urging the US government for *years* to make use of its authority to effectively limit the variety of flights to what the airport can realistically handle,” Kirby said in a note to employees on Friday. “Past failure to make those changes had led to the circumstances that United and, most significantly, our customers now face.” Â
In 2016, the FAA eased flight restrictions on the airport and Kirby said the FAA should return to prior rules.
“It’s long gone time to treat EWR just like the crown jewel that it’s,” he told employees within the Wednesday, using the airport’s code. “We’ll proceed to work closely with the FAA and [Transportation Department] to get EWR fixed once and for all and deliver the country the first-class air traffic system it deserves.”
Adding air traffic controllers
The U.S. has around 10,800 air traffic controllers, well in need of its full staffing goal by 3,000, in response to the controllers’ union, the NATCA.
“Over the past eight years, we have had 146,000 applicants and we have hired 7,905 of those,” Chris Wilbanks, vice chairman of mission support on the FAA who’s in command of controller hiring and training, said in interview in March. “Lower than 10% of the those who apply for the job actually make it to the [Oklahoma training] academy after which graduate to exit into the sector.”
Within the previous fiscal yr, the FAA’s goal was to rent 1,800 controllers.
“We’ll lose 35% of those on the academy. We’ll lose one other 20% once they get in the sector, on the job training. So we do not net 1,800 controllers,” Wilbanks said.
The grueling job requires air traffic controllers to retire at age 56, and applicants to the academy could be no older than 30. Many are forced to work six-day workweeks due to the shortages.
Duffy has recently moved to extend financial incentives, like higher pay for air traffic controllers. Starting pay is around $45,000, the union’s Daniels said, though the median pay for a U.S. air traffic controller is $144,580 a yr, in response to the U.S. Labor Department.
