The Federal Aviation Administration has vowed to accelerate fixes at New Jersey’s troubled Newark Liberty International Airport — as President Trump promised Thursday to overhaul the entire US air traffic control system, blaming ongoing problems on the previous administration.
The FAA said it would upgrade elements of the air-traffic control operation that oversees the Garden State airport after technical problems caused mass cancellations.
The havoc unfolded when the radar system that air traffic controllers in Philadelphia use to direct planes in and out of Newark went offline for at least 30 seconds last week.
The facility relies on radar data sent over lines from New York that may have failed, including some old copper phone lines
The feds now plan to replace those old wires with fiber optics and add three new data lines between New York and Philadelphia as part of the fix.
The agency said it is also working to get additional controllers trained and certified.
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the upgrades would take but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he hopes the situation in Newark will improve by summer.
The ongoing chaos at Newark, as well as a slew of recent midair crashes in US airspace, has prompted the feds to pledge a fix for the nation’s outdated air traffic control system.
“Air Traffic problems caused by the incompetent Biden Administration, as headed by, in this case, a total novice and political hack, Pete B. I WILL FIX IT!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Thursday, referring to former transport head Pete Buttigieg.
Trump’s post came just hours before his transportation secretary was set to unveil a multi-billion-dollar plan to overhaul the system.
“We are on it. We are going to fix it. We are going to build a brand new system for all of you and your families and the American people,” Duffy said.
With Post wires
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