Air Traffic Controller Warns Major Airport Unsafe for Travel: ‘Avoid Newark at All Costs’

https://www.thedailybeast.com/air-traffic-controller-warns-major-airport-unsafe-for-travel-avoid-newark-at-all-costs/

39 comments

  1. “An air traffic controller warned Friday that Newark Liberty International Airport is unsafe for travelers due to staff shortages, according to MSNBC correspondent Tom Costello.”

  2. Boy am I glad that some dude from Road Rules is running the Department of Transportation.

  3. I remember back in the day when air travel was safe..

    Way back in ’24..

  4. I flew out of EWR over the weekend and it was a bit of a shit show.

    We board on time and immediate 30 minute ground stoppage.  45 minutes later, we push back and are in a queue of 25 to take off.  About 15 minutes into this queue, a passenger needed to be deplaned so we turn around and go back to the gate and now we need to refuel and requeue…….

    I’m surprised that all in all, I was only 2h late on arrival.

  5. If the FAA doesn’t get enough air traffic controllers, maybe the pay is too low. This is free market economy, high demand causes the price to rise.

  7. Wow, that’s pretty concerning. I’ve flown through Newark a few times and never had any major issues, but if an air traffic controller is saying it’s unsafe, I might reconsider future plans. Thanks for the heads up.

  9. > In mid-February, the FAA announced that it had cut 400 employees, but Duffy said then that “zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.”

    But did you fire people who managed scheduling, equipment repairs, training, communications, and other services that the controllers themselves depend on to function adequately?

  10. Somehow Newark getting this warning before DCA feels wrong, but I suppose they might somehow have it worse

  11. Oh cool. I just booked flights for August. Fucking hell.

  12. I have 4 trips scheduled out of Newark this year…

  13. Ewr is working on a runway so any kind of weather issue that would normally slow the usual 65 planes per hour just a little bit is spiraling out of control causing dozens of cancellations on any given day. Doesn’t have to be a storm just some rain.

    The faa shortage has been going on since trump started screwing things and probably won’t get better for a couple years. But they are putting holds on traffic and cancelling when they are short because say someone called out sick. So I’m not overly nervous about flying in and out. Had 4 trips last month.

  15. Well, let’s get some experienced help in there before something bad happens!

  16. Nice… I have a few flights in the next few weeks. Great news!

    Have had about 16 flights in and out over the last 2 months and a majority were delayed. Many more the rest of the year. Fun times ahead

  17. Staff shortages at a critical government agency? What could go wrong? /s

  18. I’ll avoid all US airports until I die; should do the trick.

  19. Why is this not a $350k/yr job? Not saying it should be, but I don’t understand why supply and demand doesn’t drive the salary up dramatically? Surely Newark is burning millions a day at this hour, no?

  20. Flew out of Newark on Friday morning. Plane waited in a long queue to take off, as another person mentioned. Clearly they were backed up for some reason, it’s not usual.

  21. Where’s the Department of Transportation Secretary? Whenever something bad happened while Pete Buttigieg was Secretary he was called out by MAGA! So? Why the double standard?

  22. Newark has always been incredibly busy. I was flying from London to the U.S. and we had to go past Newark and you could see just plane after plane pop out of the cloud cover. It was incredible. Every few seconds there was another one.

  24. Flew through Newark coming back from Malpensa last Thursday. Feel like I should get a “I survived Connecting Through Newark 2025” t-shirt or something. I guess next time I’ll go through O’Hare :-/

  25. I’m reading this while sitting on a plane bound for Newark. Thanks a lot, everyone.

  26. Geez! That’s what us NYers have been saying for years. Avoid Newark!

    But seriously we are only 4 months into this.

    I’m so tired of all this winning.

  27. They are breaking everything so they can justify turning the military on civilians. Then it’s over.

  28. Jokes on them because I already do. Newark is a shithole airport.

  29. > In a news conference on Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for more Americans to become air traffic controllers. He announced new incentives for doing so, such as a $5,000 bonus for those who make it through the academy.

    Here is a thought, how about free academies and for people who make it through? Jobs, instead of paltry amounts of money that won’t even being to cover the debt they will incur to learn how to be an air traffic controller.

  31. Avoiding Newark is sound advice regardless of the ATC situation

  33. I have never felt more unsafe to fly, although plane crashes are pretty rare. I would rather just drive 20 hours. I know statistically I’m more likely to die in a car crash, but something about whatever the hell is going on right now makes me feel very uncomfortable

  34. I can solve this. Only white CIS male pilots allowed to fly in and out of EWR. I’ve been told that’s the issue, right?

  35. I’m booked to fly internationally from Newark in late June….should I / can I rebook my ticket?

  36. They could be giving away free blowjobs and buckets of gold bars and I’d still avoid Newark Liberty. This is just good advice even if they had all the staffing they wanted. That airport is dreadful.

  37. Newark’s issues seem to be bleeding over to the whole eastern half of the country. Every plane that’s delayed departing EWR due to inadequate staffing causes delays and misconnects elsewhere.

    A few weeks ago I was supposed to fly cvg-iad on united but the flight was delayed multiple times because the plane couldn’t leave Newark. It was ultimately 6 hours late and I missed my TATL connection.

  38. I avoid Newark because it’s a shit airport. You avoid Newark because it’s not a safe airport. We are not the same.

  39. This will first of many to come. We are going backwards as a nation and some will be too ignorant to see it

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