Syndication: The Record
(Newark, NJ) — Fliers at Newark Airport are finally getting a break from all the delays and cancellations over the last few months. One of the airport’s main runways, that has been closed since April is reopening today. The runway was getting a much needed overhaul. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will be at Newark to celebrate the good news. The work was done two weeks ahead of schedule.
Duffy says the FAA’s Tracon facility in Philadelphia, which oversees Newark airspace, will get 16 more air traffic controllers by the fall. That’s the number currently working out of Tracon after five controllers took mental health leave last month, saying they were traumatized by their communication systems going dark for 90-seconds in April. Duffy is asking Congress for billions of dollars to gut aging airport infrastructures around the country and rebuild from scratch.
There have been at least three episodes over the last few months where there were radio outages in the control tower at Newark.
