Things have gotten so bad at this NJ airport that Congress is stepping in

✈ Rep. Josh Gottheimer wants to know the White House plan for the air traffic controller shortage

✈ United is cutting Newark flights to make the airport more "manageable"

✈ The airline plans an announcement next week

Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport this summer know it doesn't take much bad weather to cancel flights.

Case in point: Nearly 80 flights in and out of Newark Liberty were canceled Friday when a line of thunderstorms moved through New Jersey around dawn. Newark, JFK and LaGuardia had the most cancellations in the country during the Independence Day holiday between July 2 and 9.

United Airlines' solution is to cut flights at Newark for a second time this year and make the airport more "manageable."

United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella told stockholders during its second-quarter earnings call that the airline will cut the number of departures from 435 to 390, according to a report by the travel publication Airline Weekly.

United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline will open six more gates in Terminal A, will use more "resilient" scheduling software and work with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the FAA.

A United spokesperson told New Jersey 101.5 the airline will have more information next week about changes at Newark.

Gottheimer: FAA knew there would be summer delays

U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J. 5th District, said he got language included in the FAA Reauthorization Bill that passed the House Thursday requiring the U.S. Government Accountability Office to study the reasons for the cancellations and delays. Gottheimer also wants to know what U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Acting FAA Administrator Polly Trottenberg plan to do about the shortage of air traffic controllers.

"New Jersey families who save their hard-earned dollars for trips should not have to face repeated flight delays and costly cancellations,” Gottheimer said. “I’m extremely worried that these flight issues have become the new normal and that the FAA doesn’t have a strategy in place to respond to and mitigate the frequency of these challenges in the Tri-State area."

Gottheimer said that with air traffic control staffing levels for the New York area airports short by 3,000 the FAA knew there were going to be problems this summer.

"The Inspector General put out a report recently admitting that the FAA knew they were going to have a problem this summer that could cause major delays. And what's unbelievable is they don't seem to have a plan for what to do about it," Gottheimer said.

Gottheimer said the added language that will train and hire new air traffic controllers and invest in air traffic control technology. It will also provide for more consumer protections when it comes to meals and hotels in the event of a cancellation.

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