Newark airport getting upgrades after technology failures contribute to delays

The Federal Aviation Administration announced plans Wednesday to update technology and other functions at Newark Liberty International Airport , which has been plagued by delays all week.

Why it matters: A perfect storm of technology failures and the nationwide shortage of air traffic controllers caused hours-long ground delays at the airport, forcing United to cancel dozens of daily flights into the hub.

  • "When staffing or equipment issues occur, the FAA will ensure safety by slowing the rate of arrivals into the airport," the FAA said.

State of play: STARS, an FAA system that processes radar data for Newark is based in New York. This data is fed to the Philadelphia TRACON, where controllers handle Newark arrivals and departures. Updates to both systems include:

  • Increasing controller staffing.
  • Adding three new high-bandwidth telecommunications connections between New York and Philadelphia for more speed, reliability and redundancy.
  • Replacing copper telecommunications connections with updated fiberoptic technology.
  • Deploying a temporary backup system to Philadelphia that will provide redundancy during the transition to the new network.
  • Establishing a STARS hub in Philadelphia so that it doesn't rely on the New York feed.

Catch up quick: Several factors caused over a week of delays and cancelations at Newark, including the weather and a shortage of air traffic controllers.

  • On April 28, controllers in Philadelphia responsible for coordinating Newark's operations, "temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under control."
  • United Airlines on Friday said it would remove 35 round-trip flights per day from its Newark schedule.

Our thought bubble, from Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick : It's unclear why the Biden-era FAA didn't implement at least some of these redundancies before moving control of Newark approach from a Long Island facility to Philadelphia, which may have prevented at least some of the recent chaos.

What we're watching: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on May 2 announced a plan to build a new air traffic control system.

  • "By doing that, we're going to guarantee that our airspace is not just safe, but the airspace will be far more efficient," he said.

Go deeper: Newark's perfect storm: What's causing long delays at the airport?

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