Why U.S. air traffic control is under strain
An airport control tower is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images
Air traffic controllers have been under strain for years, but a 90-second equipment failure last month exposed how decades of staffing shortages, underinvestment and patchwork solutions for those who guide planes through some of the world’s most congested airspace are taking their toll.
The outage also sparked hundreds of flight delays, disrupting travel for thousands of people for days — again. Less than two weeks later, on Friday, there was another similar outage at the same facility, though it was overnight, when far fewer planes are in the air.
Vexed by costly delays, airline executives have clamored for years for upgrades to fix the aging air traffic infrastructure and end staffing shortages.
With the CEOs of the largest U.S. airlines present, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday unveiled a plan to replace dated radar and communications systems across U.S. airspace, an overhaul that airlines estimate could require Congress to approve more than $30 billion in funding.
Duffy didn’t provide a price tag but has said the job will cost billions of dollars and added Thursday that it will require those funds from Congress “up front.”
“The system we have here, it’s not worth saving,” Duffy said at the event. “It’s too old.”
Airlines, Airbus, GE Aerospace, labor unions and other industry members on Thursday applauded a $12.5 billion House spending proposal set aside to improve air traffic control and said another $18.5 billion in emergency funding is needed over the next three years for upgrades and improved staffing.
Some Democrats said they were encouraged by Duffy’s new proposal but criticized the Trump administration’s layoffs of dozens of Federal Aviation Administration employees earlier this year, which didn’t include air traffic controllers.
“If America wants to remain the gold standard in aviation safety, we need smart investments—not canceled investments and funding cuts,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., in a statement on Thursday.
What’s the problem at Newark?
On the afternoon of April 28, air traffic controllers at a facility in Philadelphia who are responsible for guiding planes to and from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey faced dark radar screens and were unable to talk to planes for more than a minute.
The outage lasted about 30 seconds. It took another 30 to 60 seconds for aircraft to reappear on radarscopes, according to the FAA.
United Airlines’ Captain Deon Byrne check her phone as she arrives at Terminal C in Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images
Pilots for major U.S. airlines say they are specially trained to handle such outages.
But an outage of even a few seconds “is an eternity for air traffic controllers,” said Jeff Guzzetti, a retired air safety investigator for the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.
The incident, which was not the first time equipment outages hit the facility, was so jarring some have “taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” the FAA said.
More than 1,500 Newark flights were delayed in the week after the outage, according to FlightAware. United Airlines, which runs a hub out of Newark, said it was cutting 35 flights a day from its schedule to ease strain on its operation and customers.
A Newark runway has also been closed for construction, adding to disruptions.
A similar radar and communication outage occurred before dawn on Friday at the same facility that oversees planes arriving and departing from Newark airport.
New steps
On Wednesday, the FAA said it would beef up staffing at the Philadelphia facility and work to fix communication lines that feed data to controllers there for Newark flights. It said it plans to install a temporary backup system there to “provide redundancy during the switch to a more reliable fiberoptic network.”
New upgrades can’t come soon enough.
“We have computers, and I kid you not, today in 2025, that are based on Windows 95 and floppy disks,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in an interview in March.
The FAA last year said that the average age of its towers is 40 and that most radar systems are approaching 40 years old. “Aging facilities add risk to the system, including risk of service disruptions,” it said.
The plan Duffy unveiled on Thursday called for replacing 618 radars and the construction of six new air traffic control centers, as well as installing new fiber optic, wireless and satellite systems to replace old communications systems.
People wait in line for a delayed flight at Newark…
Read More: Why U.S. air traffic control is under strain