U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to reporters throughout a information convention on Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport on the Division of Transportation Headquarters on Might 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Pictures
The Trump administration on Monday introduced the creation of an emergency job pressure comprised of govt consultants from Verizon, L3Harris and the Federal Aviation Administration to handle ongoing telecommunications points at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated the aim is so as to add three new telecommunications connections between New York and Philadelphia to make sure communications redundancy, in order that if one line goes down, the others will arise.
Whereas he didn’t present an actual timeline for completion, Duffy stated he spoke to Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg on Sunday and Verizon is working “as quick as doable.”
The announcement follows three incidents prior to now two weeks the place air site visitors controllers tasked with guiding planes out and in of Newark misplaced their primary telecommunication strains. The primary two occasions, on April 28 and May 9, concerned 90-second outages wherein controllers misplaced the power to see and discuss to planes.
The outages sparked a whole lot of flight delays and disrupted journey for 1000’s of individuals. Some air site visitors controllers have taken time off to get better from the stress of the outages, in keeping with the FAA.
When the principle telecommunications line went down for a 3rd time on Sunday, the backup line functioned correctly and controllers didn’t lose all communications, because the FAA had applied a software program patch, Duffy stated throughout a briefing with reporters. Nonetheless, air site visitors controllers have been involved and issued a floor cease on the New York-area hub for 45 minutes, in keeping with Duffy.
In the course of the briefing, FAA Performing Administrator Chris Rocheleau stated the brand new job pressure is comprised of the “proper technical consultants” with the aim to “hold give attention to this each single day and to be clear in regards to the progress that we’re making.”
L3Harris is an FAA contractor, and Verizon helps the telecommunication strains that run into the Philadelphia facility the place controllers oversee planes at Newark, in keeping with Duffy.
The duty pressure’s creation comes lower than per week after the Division of Transportation announced a new plan to spend tens of billions of {dollars} to modernize the U.S. air site visitors management system. Duffy stated he’s ready on Congress to approve the plan.
Duffy additionally plans to convene a “delay discount” assembly on Wednesday with the entire airways that fly out of Newark airport.
“The aim is to have a manageable variety of flights land in Newark,” Duffy stated. “Households should not have to attend 4 or 5 hours for a flight that by no means takes off.”
— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.