Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that the FAA would be temporarily reducing flights at Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) during a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Hours before the conference, the FAA published a statement saying it would slow arrivals and departures at the airport due to runway construction, staffing, and technology issues at the Philadelphia TRACON radar—which briefly went offline Friday for the second time this month.
“I think it is clear that the blame belongs with the last administration,” Duffy said during Monday’s press conference. “[Former Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg and [President] Joe Biden did nothing to fix the system that was broken…In July of 2024, the Biden [and] Buttigieg FAA moved control of the New York Newark airspace from New York [N90] to the Philadelphia Tower [Philadelphia TRACON].”
He said that as part of the move, the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) system which processes radar data for Newark stayed based in New York. Telecommunication lines would feed this data from New York to Philadelphia TRACON, where controllers would then handle New York arrivals and departures.
“The Biden [and] Buttigieg FAA bungled this move without properly hardening the telecom lines feeding the data which was already well known to be error-prone,” he said. “Without addressing the underlying infrastructure, they added more risk to the system.”
Duffy said that there were issues in October and November under the previous administration that would have indicated problems with the underlying hardware. He said that he has requested an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General to look into the air traffic control move by the Biden administration.
If the newly proposed FAA air traffic control system revamp is approved by congress, Duffy said that Newark will be prioritized for infrastructure upgrades first.
Meanwhile, the FAA has submitted a notice to the Federal Register announcing a delay reduction meeting for Newark. The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday morning and is open to all scheduled carriers—even those not operating at the airport.
“The travel into Newark today is safe, but we will continue to monitor that situation as it relates to the technologies that the secretary referenced earlier,” said FAA acting administrator Chris Rocheleau, during the conference. “First and foremost, we have a task force starting today with the right technical experts to keep focus on this every single day and to be transparent about the progress we’re making…It is time. We have seen delays and disruptions in this system, [and] we need to get ahead of that. By being bold and taking action on this new air traffic modernization program, that will be a long-term fix—even the midterm fix to make sure that we continue to provide safe and efficient travel for the American traveling public.”
