Newark airport problems: what to know

Newark Liberty International Airport has faced many disruptions in recent weeks. The technological breakdowns, the shortages of air traffic controller and the trail construction of the occupied center led to dozens of canceled and delayed flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration says that it is trying to improve the situation, especially with software and hardware upgrades. On Wednesday, he met the managers of airlines to discuss how to manage things smoothly by reducing the number of flights to the airport to a given hour.

On Wednesday, during an audience in the Senate on Aviation Safety, Senator Ted Cruz, a republican of Texas, said that the agency had a “multi -year incapacity to keep the pace of technology and personnel needs”.

What’s going on with staff?

The air traffic control facilities at the national level have not had enough controllers – professionals who guide planes in and outside airports – for years, the result of employee turnover, tight budgets, long training times and other factors.

There are only 22 certified controllers employed to serve Newark, which represents about a third timid of the endowment target of 38, according to the FAA, the agency also employs five supervisors and nearly two dozen controllers and supervisors in training. Ten trainees can do at least a little work without additional supervision, said the agency this week.

Tight staff sometimes disrupted operations in Newark. For several hours on Monday, for example, limited staff forced the FAA to prevent flights to Newark from leaving other airports. These delays lasted on average an hour and 40 minutes and lasted for almost seven hours. For a part of the evening, a few three air traffic controllers worked when the personnel target was 14 years.