Major delays at Newark Airport roll into sixth day as FAA cites air traffic control staffing issues

Air traffic control staffing issues continued to cause major delays for passengers flying in and out of the busy Newark airport outside of New York City for an unprecedented sixth day in a row.

Air traffic control staffing issues continued to cause major delays for passengers flying in and out of the busy Newark airport outside of New York City for an unprecedented sixth day in a row. The Federal Aviation Administration once again imposed delays Saturday for flights bound for Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, citing staffing. For some arriving flights, average delays stretched over three hours earlier Saturday afternoon. Over 270 flights to or from Newark were delayed as of Saturday afternoon, according to FlightAware – around a quarter of the total flights scheduled at the airport. On Friday, the FAA’s Ground Delay Program announced delays averaging more than two hours for flights heading to Newark. The FAA has not commented officially on the nature of the staffing problems, though staffing has been listed by the FAA as the cause of delays since Monday, when equipment outages led to United Airlines canceling more than 100 flights and diverting 37 others. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby put out a statement Friday about the delays, saying the airport’s issues seem to be a combination of technology failures and “over 20% of the FAA controllers for EWR (Newark Liberty International Airport) walked off the job.” The airline will cancel 35 round-trip flights per day from their Newark schedule starting this weekend as “we feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers,” Kirby said.