Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the Biden administration for the recent chaos at the Newark Liberty International Airport — accusing them of bungling last year’s move of air traffic control from New York to Philadelphia.
Duffy said his predecessor, Pete Buttigieg, failed to oversee a smooth transition of Newark’s airspace to the troubled Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (Tracon), in July 2024, creating problems that caused chaos on Friday and Sunday when air traffic control equipment experienced outages.
Duffy said his team installed a software update that allows will allow a backup data feed to prevent terrifying full outages of radar and communications — which have happened twice in recent weeks.
He said he is working with Verizon and L3Harris to speed up the installation of additional fiber optic data feeds between New York and the Philly Tracon, which would also buttress the system.
That, fix, however, will not happen until the end of May at the earliest.
Additionally, Duffy faulted the “Biden-Buttegieg administration” for failing to upgrade the Philly Tracon with the modern Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) — which is used at major air traffic control centers around the US, including in New York.
A STARS system will be added to Philly, but Duffy did not say how long that will take.
The transportation secretary added that he will be meeting with all major airlines on Wednesday to schedule reduced traffic at the New Jersey airport, with officials saying arrivals would be reduced to 56 per hour, down from up to 80.
“Families shouldn’t have to wait four or fire hours for flights that never take off,” Duffy said.
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