Washington
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The Federal Aviation Administration made a prescription on Tuesday on Tuesday reducing the number of arrivals and departures authorized at Newark Liberty International Airport after weeks of delays caused by the shortages of air -controller personnel and the construction of the track.
The order, which comes into force immediately, will allow 56 planes to take off and land each hour while the track takes place. The renovations should take place daily until June 15, then Saturday until the end of the year.
When the construction does not take place, 68 arrivals and departures each hour will be authorized until October 25.
“Our objective is to relieve the substantial disadvantages for the itinerant public of excessive delays due to the construction, the challenges of the endowment and the problems of recent equipment, which are expanding when they propagate in the national airspace system”, the acting administrator of the FAA, Christopher Rocheleau, in a press release.
At one point, the FAA had targeted 77 arrivals in total and departures in Newark every hour, but at the start of the construction on April 15, they asked the airlines to reduce this to 70 in total during the day and 62 for specific hours at the end of the afternoon and in the evenings.
Tuesday’s order to reduce thefts comes after a “delays reduction meeting” of three days in Washington with airlines, FAA and the port authority in New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark airport.
The FAA has added that it will update the figures if “the capacity exists to accommodate more flights without a significant increase in delays, or that additional flight reductions are necessary.”
In addition to the construction of track, Newark airport was touched by a shortage of personnel and telecommunications problems.
The air traffic control installation that manages flights arriving or leaving the airport has a target of 38 “certified professional controllers”, but only has 24 on staff, FAA said in order cutting flights.
The staff rate of 63% took another hit on April 28 when radio communications were lost for 30 seconds and the radar became empty for 90 seconds in a busy afternoon. As a result, five workers took a trauma leave of 45 days.
The installation has continued to see additional telecommunications failures since then.
The FAA says that plans are in place to install three new “large -band telecommunications connections”, replace the copper lines and increase the staff of the establishment.
