Newark Airport’s third runway reopened forward of schedule Monday, rising the capability of the beleaguered transit hub amid staffing and technical considerations which have led to widespread cancellations and delays over the previous a number of weeks.
In asserting the opening Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy advised reporters enhancements have been additionally underway to enhance the methods and personnel issues which were on the coronary heart of the disaster. That features new transmission traces for vital radar feeds and the coaching of latest air visitors controllers.
“Today we’re celebrating the opening of Newark’s runway,” Duffy mentioned. “This is a 60-day project that actually was completed 13 days early.”
The north-south going through Runway 4L/22R — one in every of two parallel runways that serve the majority of Newark’s passenger visitors — had been closed in April for routine upkeep. The closure got here simply weeks earlier than a radar outage that precipitated a staffing scarcity — a trifecta of maladies that result in a Might meltdown for New Jersey vacationers.
Newark Airport has been working at a capability of 56 flights per hour — 28 arrivals and 28 departures — since 4L/22R closed in April. The runway was open for departures on Monday, and Duffy mentioned the FAA is predicted to certify electrical gear on the runway by early subsequent week, which might clear it for arriving flights as nicely.
After that certification, the airport can be approved see as many as 68 flights an hour — a quantity Duffy mentioned the airport may help with the present staffing stage of air visitors controllers.
The FAA Air Visitors Management tower is seen at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport in Newark, New Jersey on Might 7, 2025. (Photograph by KENA BETANCUR/AFP through Getty Pictures)
However Newark’s issues over the previous few months have had much less to do with one fewer runway, and extra to do with a scarcity of air visitors controllers amid a spate of technical failures.
The troubles got here to a head on April 28, when the radar protection of the North Jersey airspace and the telecommunications traces between the controllers and the native airport towers failed.
The outage successfully blinded air visitors controllers at Philadelphia’s “terminal radar approach control” — or TRACON — who’re chargeable for the skies over North Jersey. Twenty p.c of the controllers assigned to the Newark airspace took a depart of absence over the incident — a depart that’s anticipated to final two extra weeks.
Alongside the staffing points, radar issues have endured.
Till final 12 months, New York TRACON — positioned in Nassau County — managed the skies for all three main NYC airports: Newark, LaGuardia and JFK.
That modified in July 2024, when the FAA gave management of the North Jersey airspace — and the 2 dozen air visitors controllers who have been licensed on it — to Philadelphia TRACON in an try to extra evenly distribute the workload on the chronically understaffed Lengthy Island management heart.
A show reveals the standing of flights at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport in Newark, N.J., Monday, Might 5, 2025. (AP Photograph/Seth Wenig)
However regardless of the reassignment, the radar feeds that the North Jersey airspace controllers depend on are nonetheless despatched to New York TRACON. From there they have to be despatched on to Philadelphia alongside previous copper telecom traces — a state of affairs that introduces latency into the system and may trigger outages.
Duffy mentioned Monday that work was underway to attempt to clear up each the staffing and technical points which have plagued Newark.
A brand new fiber optic line has already been run between Philly TRACON and the New York facility, Duffy mentioned, put in by Verizon “in less than a month’s time.”
“That new fiber line’s not stood up yet because we’re testing it,” he mentioned. “The FAA has some pretty laborious testing procedures — we appreciate that.”
“Our hope is, at the end of June [or] early July, we can switch it over [to the fiber optic cable,]” Duffy mentioned.
A spokesman for Verizon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Duffy acknowledged that six of the 22 controllers assigned to Philly TRACON are presently on depart, leaving simply 16 to handle the North Jersey skies.
Duffy mentioned there are 22 further controllers presently being educated to take up roles on the Philadelphia facility. Of these, 14 are controllers licensed to handle different air areas across the nation. Eight are new controllers in coaching.
“It does take time,” Duffy mentioned.
“You want to make sure you have well-trained, certified controllers controlling your air space,” he mentioned, including that he anticipated them to come back on-line inside the 12 months.
A spokesman for the Nationwide Air Visitors Controllers Affiliation didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Initially Printed: June 2, 2025 at 3:36 PM EDT
