Staffing Shortages and Runway Work Continue to Cause Major Delays at Newark Airport; April 28th Radar Failure Reported by Bloomberg

(Newark, New Jersey) Newark Liberty International Airport is currently experiencing widespread delays and cancellations due to a shortage of air traffic controllers, runway construction, and recent severe weather — additionally, this afternoon (May 5), Bloomberg reported that a network failure left air traffic controllers without both radar and radio communication for about 90 seconds on April 28th.

Photo of a United Airlines airliner landing at Newark Airport courtesy ofThe New York Times (photo by Dakota Santiago).

Following the April 28th incident, multiple airport employees were placed on trauma leave, according to sources, as reported by Bloomberg.

On May 2nd, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy posted on X via his account, @SecDuffy: “Visited the Philadelphia TRACON today to talk with our hard working air traffic controllers as we work to fix these equipment outages caused by outdated technology. It’s unacceptable. We are working to harden the system. But this is why it’s critical that we build an all-new air traffic control system.”

Newark Airport is the second busiest airport in the New York area, according to The New York Post.

The incident and resulting reduction in staffing contributed to this past week of flight delays and cancellations at Newark Airport, which led to United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) cutting 35 daily round trips at the key hub — which is United’s largest for international departures and a primary gateway for domestic flights – and therefore reducing its daily schedule of flights in and out of the airport by about 10 percent.

According to United CEO Scott Kirby, more than 20 percent of FAA air traffic controllers assigned to the airport have walked off the job as of today (Monday, May 5th), making it difficult to manage normal flight operations.

In a public statement, Kirby said the decision was made to protect passengers from worsening disruptions and urged federal officials to take stronger action to match airport operations with its staffing and infrastructure capabilities.

Per Travel & Leisure, Newark Airport t is currently operating with only one functional runway,.

Several news outlets are reporting that airport officials are urging travelers with upcoming flights in or out of Newark to check their airline’s website for schedule changes and to consider other nearby airports. One anonymous federal safety source told NBC News reporter Tom Costello that the situation poses risks to flight safety and suggested avoiding Newark altogether if possible.

Labor groups hold that the problems highlight the need for long-term investment in air traffic control staffing and airport infrastructure, per CNN.