Sean Duffy

Update on the Situation at Newark Liberty International Airport

delivered 28 May 2025

[AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED: Text version below transcribed directly from audio]

Good afternoon, everybody. I'm here with the Deputy Administrator of the FAA, Chris Rocheleau. We want to give you an update on what's been going on at the Newark Airport, what advancements have been made, the state of play as it exists right now.

But before we do that, just, as many of you have reported, we have an antiquated, an old air traffic control system; anywhere from 25, 35, 40 years old in some places. It is in desperate need of a brand new build, which I'll talk about in a -- in a little bit. In addition, we're 3,000 air traffic controllers short helping control our skies. But going to Newark, obviously it's gotten a lot of attention. There's been a lot of disruption there. So I want to just give a brief history of -- of what took place.

On April 28th, there was a 30-second telecom outage. So, we lost radar, and we lost telecom. And then there was, on top of that, a 60-second reboot of the scopes of the radar. So, for radar it was a total of 90 seconds, and it was 30 seconds total time for telecom. The same thing happened on May 9th; again, a -- a 30-second outage, scopes rebooted, and that added another minute on to the timeframe in which we didn't have scopes or radar at the Philly TRACON [Terminal Radar Approach Control] controlling Newark.

We found that there was a problem, a glitch within our system at the Philly TRACON. We deployed a...software update that actually fixed the glitch. And so on May 11th, the main line -- there's two lines; they're redundant -- the main line went down and the -- the backup line actually fired. It worked. So, our fix to the glitch actually worked. Out of an abundance of caution, the Philly TRACON shut down traffic at -- at Newark for a short period of time, just out of an abundance of caution. And then on May 20th, there was a two-second -- we called it a "radio outage," but it was static on the line, so it wasn't a...complete failure of the line, but there was static for two seconds.

We have been working with Verizon. They have one of the lines that we're using. They've worked to harden that line. It's been working as we would anticipate, even though it's not brand new. It's -- The existing line has been functioning as anticipated.

And so I want to just talk about kind of what's happening at Newark. There's three issues: one, we have a runway that's under construction; two, we've had a telecom issue; and three, we have a staffing issue with air traffic controllers.

So, number one, in regard to the runway. The...port authority has done an amazing job. They were working seven days a week, 16 to 18 hours a day to finish this runway. The concrete has been laid. I think they're just striping. They are just striping right now. We have a target date of June 15th of bringing the runway online. I -- I think if all goes well, we may be able to beat the June 15th date of -- of bringing the runway online.

In regard to telecom. So, we've -- we've been at this for 30 days since the first outage. Verizon has laid a brand new fiber line between Philadelphia and New York. That was the troubled portion of the line. That's been laid. We're doing some of the connections right now, and then we have to test it. I don't want to over-promise and under-deliver, but if everything goes well -- and there can be problems when you test the line -- but if it all goes well, we should be able to turn over to this new fiber line at the start of July. After that, we're going to work on the second line that goes from New York to Newark. We haven't had issues with that line, but one of the lines is still copper. We're going to put a new fiber line in. But the main issue, Philly to...New York, the problem line, in 30 days that fiber was laid, and we should be able to flip over to that in short order.

Want to quickly talk about the -- the staffing issues that we have. I'm going to probably give you too many numbers, but I'm going to do it anyway. So, work in the Philly TRACON: We have 27 people. Of the 27 people, 22 are certified controllers and five are supervisors. So, of the 22 certified controllers, five of them have taken trauma leave and one of them is on a medical leave. So, out of the 22, you take six away, we have 16 controllers working the Philly TRACON.

However, in training right now, we have 16 controllers in training. Now, to be clear, these 16, they're not 16 that just came out of the academy. These were controllers that, in other air spaces, have been certified. They've moved to the Philly TRACON, and it takes them time to get certified on that airspace. And so we anticipate in the coming months -- it's on a rolling basis -- these controllers in training are going to get certified. And we're going to be able to add controllers back into the system in -- in Philadelphia. I think it's important to [know] -- there's a lot of questions about full staffing of controllers versus, you know, how many we have right now. We have three or four controllers working in -- in the TRACON at a time. So. let me just briefly talk about that.

As Chris will tell you, safety is the priority. And if we don't feel something is safe, we will stop or we will slow things down. So, on average in... Newark, they're running about 50, 54 flights an -- an hour for departures. We've brought that down. Right now, departures are at 28 an hour, okay? When the -- When the new runway comes online June 15th, we're going to bump that from 28 to 34. It's going to stay that way until October, until we bring these controllers up to speed and -- and add them to the airspace. And when that happens, we'll do another evaluation and see how much, if any, we can increase those numbers.

But we have enough controllers working the Philly TRACON to -- to control the airspace with a limited amount of traffic that we've got the airlines to agree to.

So, some have asked, "Is the airspace safe?" "Is it [safe] to -- to travel by airplane?" And the answer to that is, absolutely yes! Of course it is, because we've slowed things down. And as we, again, finish the runway and as we train up more controllers, we'll do another evaluation on how we can increase those departures out of Newark when we feel it's appropriate.

And -- And so that's the state of play in Newark right now. And before I turn it over to the acting administrator, I think this truly is a moment to look at what kind of system we're using, what kind of equipment we use, what kind of telecom we use. And it's a call to action to make sure we build a brand new air traffic control system. Now, you saw how fast Verizon worked with us to -- to lay this fiber line. That's just an example of what's going to happen should the Congress give us the money to do this brand new build. And by the way, it's a nationwide plan. And we...have systems all over the country. But we need the Congress to act.

I want to thank the House. They put $12.5 billion into the "Big, Beautiful Bill" that's going to go towards this infrastructure project. That won't be enough. I know the Senate's going to look. Can they find money to put into this bill? But we are going to need them to fully fund this project, number one. And number two, they've got to clear the permitting process for us. If we have to go through a laborious permitting process, it's going to add years on, and adding years on a -- on a system that's already showing its age is unacceptable. And so I hope that the Congress is going to do their work, find the resources to help us start this project.

We have the plan. We're letting it get pressure tested by industry right now, giving us their feedback on the plan. But when they send the money, we are going to be ready to go on day one. And so, I -- I think most senators and House members understand that. They're trying to look for a vehicle to do this for us. But this is -- this is probably the most -- not probably -- this is the most critical infrastructure project that this country has at this moment.

And I do want to take a second and -- and thank President Trump. His leadership here has been remarkable. As I've mentioned to many of you in the past, he cares about the airspace. He...wants it to be built brand new. And so it's been a rare moment in time where we've seen the failures of the system. We have a Congress that understands it. And we have a President who's leaning into it with us. And we have American companies, corporations that are willing to put the FAA, not at the bottom of their list, but put the FAA work at the top of their list to make sure this project gets done in...an incredibly quick fashion. And so, that's where we're at.

I...want to turn it over to the acting administrator to -- to fill in the gaps that I might have missed. But we had a fairly good Memorial Day weekend in travel, especially in the airspace. I want to have him talk about that and a few other issues that have come up.

Original Text Source: Audio-to-text machine transcription

Text Note: Supplemental transcription work by Michael E. Eidenmuller for AmericanRhetoric.com

Page Created: 5/28/25

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