In addition to the "incredibly old" air traffic control setup that's plaguing Newark Liberty International Airport, leading to frightening recent outages of the radar system used there, the New Jersey travel hub is also suffering from an air traffic controller shortage that's causing concern. The Federal Aviation Administration tells the New York Times that just three air traffic controllers were scheduled to work each hour Monday evening at the Philly site that helps guide planes in and out of Newark, when the target number for such a shift is 14. Some sources say that number dropped to as low as one or two controllers on duty at any one time, which the New York Post backed up with its own source, an anonymous local ATC staffer who called the situation "pure insanity."
That whistleblower says the airport even faced a possible "zero ATC event," in which no controllers were set to come in to work on Monday, but at least one staffer not scheduled for a shift came in on their day off. Flights at Newark on Monday were delayed, some up to seven hours, and canceled altogether due to the staff shortage. The AP notes that the FAA has been limiting flights in and out of the airport to handle the recent incidents, with just 24 to 28 departures per hour and an equal number of arrivals; the typical number is closer to 40 of each per hour.
On Monday, flights were slowed even further, with just 20 arrivals and 20 departures per hour, according to the FAA. Adding to the issue at Newark is the fact that it's not so simple to train and add new ATC workers, considering certification for the highly specialized job takes about two and a half years, even just to transfer to a new sector. "It takes them a long time to to train up," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday, per the Times. "So we don't have the ability to just snap our fingers and move controllers around." So should you fly out of Newark? The Times has more on that. (More Newark Liberty International Airport stories.)
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