Air traffic control system must be improved to prevent problems like Newark airport, officials say

The problems that disrupted flights at New Jersey’s largest airport this spring could be repeated anywhere across the country, so Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is trying to sell Congress on his plan to overhaul the nation’s air traffic control system that will cost “tens of billions.”

Duffy provided an update Wednesday on the repairs and staffing efforts that are underway to help eliminate the problems affecting Newark Liberty International Airport, which has been running more smoothly in the past few weeks since the airlines started to cut the number of flights they operate there.

And Duffy emphasized that the Newark radar outages and air traffic control shortage are a prime example of why the antiquated system needs to be improved.

“I’m concerned that we could have more Newarks. And again, why it’s so important that we actually begin this build with the money that Congress is going to send us,” he said.

Duffy still wouldn’t give a price tag of his expansive overhaul of the air traffic control system that he said is clearly needed after the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., in January that killed 67 people and all the problems affecting Newark this spring.

But he said the $12.5 billion the House included in President Donald Trump’s massive bill won’t be enough because “it’s going to be tens of billions of dollars.”

— The Associated Press