Chaos at Newark Airport: Air traffic controller says not safe to fly, ‘avoid Newark at all costs’

✈️ Newark Liberty has had hundreds of cancelled flights and delays in the past week

✈️ Staffing, equipment issues, runway paving and thunderstorms are all to blame

✈️ United Airlines canceled 35 flights to alleviate the situation

UPDATE: Day 9 of chaos at Newark: Duffy demands drastic action

Chaos is brewing at Newark Liberty International Airport, with a growing list of delays and cancellations and an air traffic controller warning the public to avoid the hub.

An unidentified air traffic controller told MSNBC News that radars went down on Monday and radio communication was lost on Wednesday.

"Things need to change. It's not a safe situation for the flying public," the unnamed controller told reporter Tom Costello during "Morning Joe."

According to Costello, the air traffic controller told him: "It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public," and "Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs."

1,000 delayed flights at Newark

It was a bad weekend as staffing shortages, equipment issues, a runway paving project and thunderstorms all contributed to nearly 1,000 delayed departures and arrivals.

Monday doesn’t look any better with 35 departures and 38 arrivals already cancelled as of 9 a.m., according to FlightAware.com

"The flight delays and cancellations over the past few days at Newark have been completely and utterly unacceptable," Gov. Phil Murphy said on his X ahttps://twitter.com/sectionb10ccount. "I know Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is committed to addressing our nationwide air traffic controller shortage by supercharging hiring. The past few days have shown us exactly why we need to reverse the decades of staffing decline at the FAA."

United takes action

Following another day of cancellations and delays on Friday, United Airlines canceled 35 round-trip flights per day from its Newark schedule. United CEO Scott Kirby said that technology used by the air traffic controllers has failed again, prompting 20% of the workforce to walk off the job.

“United has been urging the US government for *years* to use its authority to effectively limit the number of flights to what the airport can realistically handle. Past failure to make those changes had led to the circumstances that United and, most importantly, our customers now face,” Kirby said in a written statement.

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Trump administration promises upgrades

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is planning to announce a major "state-of-the-art, gold plated, envy of the world" technological upgrade to the 25-year-old equipment being used by the air traffic system. If the issue is not addressed, Duffy fears that the issues affecting Newark could soon spread nationwide.

"We use floppy discs. We use copper wires. The system we are using is not effective to control the traffic that we have in the airspace today," Duffy said. "When we have problems with air traffic control we shut down the airspace. We will ground flights. But the consequence is the delays and the cancellations.

On Thursday, Duffy announced a plan to “supercharge” the air traffic controller workforce and make moves to address the nation's shortage of controllers. The program will help to both recruit new controllers and give existing ones incentives not to retire.

The plan will offer a $5,000 hiring bonus to graduates of the Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma City, a $5,000 bonus to new hires who complete the initial qualification training and a $10,000 award for academy graduates assigned to one of 13 hard-to-staff air traffic facilities.

Air traffic controllers who are due to retire and are under the mandatory retirement age of 56 will be offered a lump sum payment of 20 percent of their basic pay for each year they continue to work.

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