Feds say new cables should keep Newark Airport's radar system from going offline again

Travelers in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport should soon be able to breathe a sigh of relief thanks to an incoming equipment upgrade, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.

During a visit to the delay-plagued travel hub, Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration worked with Verizon over the last month to quickly install new network fiber optic cables between Long Island and the air traffic control center in Philadelphia, where Newark’s airspace is managed. He said the new system should go online as early as July.

The interstate connection transmits communications and radar data to Philadelphia from the FAA’s control center in Westbury, N.Y., where Newark’s flights were previously managed until the operation was moved last year.

The transmission currently runs on outdated copper cables, which aviation officials said caused Newark’s radar system to go offline at least three times in April and May. On two of those occasions, air traffic controllers were left blind for nearly 90 seconds, according to the FAA.

Federal transportation officials said six air traffic controllers who run Newark’s airspace went on trauma leave following the outages due to stress. That left the control center short-staffed, which contributed to at least one ground stop at the airport last month.

The problems sparked thousands of delayed and canceled flights over the last two months, causing a national outcry over the state of the country’s air traffic control systems.

Duffy on Monday said the new fiber optic connection should prevent the radar system in Philadelphia from going out again in the future.

“That new fiber line’s not stood up yet because we’re testing it right now,” Duffy said at a news conference. “The FAA has some pretty laborious testing procedures … but that process is underway and again happening very quickly.”

He also said the FAA is working to upgrade other copper lines used by flight control systems in the region, part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to modernize the equipment nationwide.

Duffy’s visit to Newark celebrated the early reopening of one of the airport’s runways, which had been under construction since April. The work compounded the airport’s problems, as it limited the number of arrivals and departures the hub could handle every hour.

Officials at the DOT and Federal Aviation Administration met with major airlines last month to plan flight reductions at Newark while they resolved the ongoing technology and staffing issues.

The plan reduced traffic from 77 flights per hour down to 56 flights per hour. Now that runway construction is complete, the FAA plans to increase traffic to 68 flights per hour next week and return to regular operations by Oct. 25.

The House last week passed a budget bill backed by President Donald Trump that includes $12 billion in funding for upgrades to FAA infrastructure over three years. The legislation still requires approval from the Senate.

Duffy on Monday said the money can’t come soon enough.

“The equipment’s been working, but it’s like I’m driving my car and I'm hearing some knocks. I got some smoke coming out of the back, I see I got some problems,” Duffy said. “And it’s incumbent upon us to tell America we have problems and it has to be fixed.