By David Shepardson
(Reuters) -Operations at Newark, one of the main airports serving New York City, have improved significantly after the federal government imposed flight cuts following a series of major disruptions, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Wednesday.
New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport, located about 9 miles (14.5 km) from Manhattan, has experienced a chaotic series of equipment outages, runway construction and air traffic control staffing issues for weeks.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a reduction in flights to a maximum of 28 arrivals per hour and 28 departures per hour until runway construction is largely complete by June 15. After that, the maximum arrival and departure rates will rise to 34 per hour until October 25.
Under normal circumstances, Newark could handle 77 totalflights per hour.
“If you book, I think you’re going to fly in Newark — you’re not going to see what you saw a couple weeks ago,” Duffy said. “Don’t go to another airport. If you book at Newark, you’re mostly likely going to fly at Newark. Because we’ve slowed down, the number of departures an hour is now a number that is manageable.”
Newark is a major hub for United Airlines, which operates nearly 70% of the airport’s flights. United has sharplycut flights at the airport.
The FAA last year relocated control of Newark’s airspace toPhiladelphia to address staffing and congested New YorkCity-area traffic, which includes New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports. The facility in Philadelphia that oversees Newark air space has faced numerous technology issues.
Duffy said the FAA has issued a software update to address a communications glitch. He said Verizon has improved one of the FAA’s telecommunications lines to make it more resilient and resistant to technology glitches and has also laid a new fiber line between New York and Philadelphia. Duffy said he hopes the new fiber line will be in use by early July.
Newark in recent weeks had often suffered delays of five ormore hours and dozens of daily canceled or delayed flights.
Duffy reiterated calls for Congress to provide tens of billions of dollars to build a new air traffic control system. “I am concerned we could have more Newarks,” Duffy said.
Nationwide, the FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers below targeted staffing levels. The area overseeing Newark has atargeted staffing level of 38 certified controllers, butcurrently has just 22 in place, six of whom are on stress or medical leave now, Duffy said. Another 16 controllers are training and will get certified for Newark airspace on a rolling basis.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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