Why U.S. air traffic control is under strain

Air traffic controllers have been under tension for years, but a 9 -second team failure last month exposes how the decades of personnel scarcity, underestimation and mosaic solutions for those planes through the world’s airspace more compliant in the world.

The interruption also caused hundreds of flight delays, interrupting trips for thousands of people for days, again. Less than two weeks later, on Friday, there was another similar interruption in the same installation, he thought it was during the night, when Feer airplanes are in the air.

Vexelated for expensive delays, airline executives have cried for years to update updates to fix the air traffic infrastructure and the shortage of final personnel.

With the CEO of the USAs of the USA.

Duffy did not provide a price, but has said that the work will cost billions of dollars and added on Thursday that it will require those funds of the Congress “in advance”.

“The system we have here is not worth keeping it,” Duffy said in the event. “It’s too old.”

Airlines, Airbus, Ge aerospaceLabor unions and other members of the industry applauded on Thursday a house spending proposal of $ 12.5 billion reserved to improve air traffic control and said that another $ 18.5 billion is needed in emergency funds.

Some Democrats said they were encouraged by Duffy’s new proposal, but criticized the dismissals of the employees of the Federal Aviation Administration of the Trump Administration earlier this year, which did not include air traffic controls.

“If the United States wants to be the golden safety standard of aviation, we need smart investments, not canceled investments and financing cuts,” said Senator Tammy Duckworth, D -on., In a statement on Thursday.

On the afternoon of April 28, air traffic controllers in an installation in Philadelphia that are responsible for the guide aircraft to and from the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey faced Sreens from dark radar and could not talk to the planes for more than a minute.

The interruption lasted about 30 seconds. The airplanes took another 30 to 60 seconds to travel in Radarscopes, according to FAA.

The pilots for the main US airlines. UU. They say they are specially trained to handle such interruptions.

But an interruption of even a few seconds “is an eternity for air traffic controllers,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air security researcher from the National Transportation Security Board of the United States and FAA.

The incident, which was not the first time that the interruptions of the teams reached the facilities, it was so discordant that some have “free time tasks to recover from the stress of multiple recent interruptions,” FAA said.

More than 1,500 Newark flights were delayed in the week after the interruption, chr coring to Flightware. United AirlinesThat he executed a Newark center, he said he was cutting 35 flights a day from his schedule to relieve tension in his operation and customs.

A Newark track has also closed the leg for construction, which increases interruptions.

A radar and similar communication cut occurred before dawn on Friday in the same installation that supervises the planes that arrive and leave Newark airport.

On Wednesday, FAA said it would be the staff at the Philadelphia facilities and would work to fix the communication lines that feed the data to the controllers there for Newark flights. He said he plans to install a temporary backup system there to “provide redundance duration of the switch to a more reliable fiber optic network.”

The new updates cannot arrive enough.

“We have computers, and it is not a joke, today in 2025, which are based on Windows 95 and disks,” said Nick Daniels, president of the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, in an interview in March.

FAA last year said that the average age of its towers is 40 and that most radar systems approach 40 years. “Aging facilities add risk to the system, including the risk of service interruptions,” he said.

The Duffy Plan presented Thursday to replace 618 Radars and the construction of six new air traffic control centers, as well as the installation of new optical, wireless and satellite fiber systems to replace old communications systems.

The incident of April 28 and the previous interruptions did not cause any accident, but the failures increased more concerns about an outdated system and the chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, partly in the airspace occupied around New York City.

US air traffic controllers handle about 45,000 flights a day in general, according to FAA.

The urgency of solving persistent problems reached a new level after a Black Hawk army helicopter hit a American Airlines Regional Jet on January 29, killing the 67 people aboard the plane. It was the most deadly plane crash in the United States since 2001.

“I should not take a tragedy to solve this problem,” Jetblue Airways The CEO Joanna Geraghty said at the Thorsday transport department event in Washington, DC “as the only headquarters with headquarters and based in New York City, we know delays and challenges of air traffic control too well.

“Let’s do this,” he said.

Newark is already dealing with space limitations to begin with.

He handled around 414000 flights last year, 11% less than the John F. Kennedy International Airport, in Queens, New York, according to the data of its operator, the New York Port Authority and New Jersey. But Newark is approximately half the size of JFK.

Technological problems and personnel deficits have been special for Newark in recent days. Last year, FAA moved to the controllers that manage Newark from an installation in Long Island, New York, where the airplanes are also sequenced towards and from the Laguardia and JFK airport in Queens, to a remote station in Philadelphia. The movement was intended to relieve the constation and tension in the Long Island facilities, but there are still problems.

The shortage of air traffic personnel has annoying airline executives that are eager to capitalize on strong demand, but are limited and face high costs due to lack of controllers.

“Keep in mind that this private air traffic control installation has a small personnel for years and without thesis controllers, it is now clear, and the FAA tells us, that Newark Canot handles the number of airplanes that are a skull there in the week, United Toy,” together to operate there, “United to operate there”, United To Operating, said Kirby on May 2, May 2, May 2, May 2, May 2, May 2 announce the schedule announcing the schedule. Announcing the schedule. Announcing the calendar.

Before April 26, four flights a day were canceled in Newark in April, on average, but that increased to 39 per day until Monday, according to the Cirium Aviation Analysis firm. About 80% of flights were scheduled in April before that date, but they fell to 63%, “well below the industry standards,” Cirium said.

Duffy has said that air trips are safe. After a visit to the Filadelphia installation after the interruption of April 28, he said that FAA will decrease, if it does not stop, the arrivals completely if there is a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The United CEO, Kirby, told employees in a memorandum on Wednesday to fly to and from Newark is safe. He said that carrier’s pilots have thousands of hours of experience and training in procedures to “continue to re -establish communication if controllers lose radio contact to navigate the plane safely to their destination.”

Airlines have sought capacity limits to help congestion, and the last interruption was no exception.

“United has urged the United States government for * years * to use its authority to limit the number of flights to what the airport can realistically handle,” Kirby said in a note to employees. “The fact of not making those changes had led to the circumstances that joined and, most importantly, our clients now face.”

In 2016, FAA facilitated flight restrictions at the airport and Kirby said FAA should return to previous rules.

“It’s time to treat EWR as the crown jewel it is,” he told employees in Wednesday’s note, using the airport code. “We will continue working closely with FAA and [Transportation Department] To fix EWR once and for all and deliver to the country the first class air traffic system it deserves. “

The United States has about 10,800 air traffic controlle, well below its full personnel objective at 3,000, according to the union of drivers, NATCA.

“In the last eight years, we had 146,000 applicants and we have hired 7,905 of them,” said Chris Wilbanks, vice president of mission support in the FAA that is in charge of hiring and training of the controller, in the interview in March. “Less than 10% of people requesting real work reach the [Oklahoma training] Academia and then graduate to go to the field. “

In the previous fiscal year, the objective of the FAA was 1,800 controllers.

“We will lose 35% of them at the Academy. We will lose another 20% once they reach the field, in job training. Therefore, we not only have 1,800 controllers,” Wilbanks said.

The exhausting work requires that air traffic drivers retire at age 56, and academy applicants cannot be more than 30 years old. Many are forced to work in the six -day work weeks due to shortage.

Duffy has recently moved to increase financial incentives, such as the highest payment for air traffic drivers. The initial payment is around $ 45,000, said the Daniels union, thought that the average payment for an American air traffic controller is $ 144,580 per year, according to the United States Labor Department.