WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed Wednesday that the number of flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport could be reduced and told lawmakers concerned about the deep staffing cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration: “We can do more with less.”
Duffy also said he expects the agency to meet its goal of graduating 2,000 new air traffic controllers this year, but warned that the chronic shortage of controllers will take years to fix.
He blamed the Biden administration for the shortage and the infrastructure failures at Newark airport, a refrain he has repeated since April 28, when controllers lost radio and radar contact for 90 seconds with the planes they were guiding.
The brief blackout caused massive delays, a problem that continues to plague the airport.
“We didn’t have 3,000 controller shortages in the last 100 days,” Duffy said in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee. “There was four years that came before where nothing was done, and watchdog groups have warned the DOT that the infrastructure was failing and nothing was done.”
The number of controllers nationwide actually rose and held steady at around 10,619 during the Biden administration, up from 10,268 in 2020, the final year of President Trump’s first term, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
Last month’s communications breakdown at Newark occurred when the copper wiring that transmits radar data from New York to the controller’s base in Philadelphia failed, the FAA said earlier.
Duffy insisted at the time that no planes were ever in danger of crashing. But the incident happened not long after the Trump administration fired hundreds of FAA workers, including maintenance mechanics, aeronautical information and environmental protection specialists, in its effort to shrink the federal government.
Appearing before the congressional committee on Wednesday, Duffy faced bipartisan pushback from lawmakers worried the drastic cuts to the DOT and FAA could endanger travelers.
“I think a lot of us up here would agree that the federal bureaucracy has become bloated, but I think we need to be a little bit more precise in downsizing a department with a mission as critical” as the DOT, said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark. “So the question is pretty simple, how many departures can you handle without eroding the ability to carry out a safe and effective mission?”
“We are working through some ideas right now on how we can streamline the department,” Duffy replied.
“Listen, we can do more with less, Mr. Chairman, and if we do more with less, that means that we’ll have additional money, I think, through this committee to put back into the infrastructure that so many of us dearly want in our communities,” Duffy told Womack.
Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said he was concerned that the “reductions to DOT’s workforce [could] halt any meaningful progress in transportation safety.”
Duffy insisted the cuts have been surgical and “have preserved all of our safety critical mission positions, including air traffic controllers.”
“Not one has been allowed to retire by any of the programs that we’ve offered,” he said.
As for the faulty wiring that caused last month’s travel chaos, Duffy told the subcommittee, “We are working through the telecom infrastructure upgrade to take care of the delays as we speak right now.”
Newark is just one of many airports around the country that has been contending with aging and sometimes failing infrastructure.
During a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday, deputy chief operating officer of air traffic control at the FAA, Franklin McIntosh, told senators that a hotline connecting controllers at Reagan National Airport in Washington and the Pentagon has been “inoperable” since March 2022.
“We are insisting on that line to be fixed before we resume any operations out of the Pentagon,” McIntosh told Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz (R-TX).
Meanwhile, the FAA was seeking a temporary fix aimed at easing the delays at Newark, where in addition to a shortage of controllers, there has been ongoing runway construction.
There should be 38 certified controllers serving Newark, the FAA has said. Currently, there are only 22.
“The FAA has brought in together all of the airlines who serve Newark to have a conversation about how there can be a delayed reduction,” Duffy said. “So, if you book your flight, that flight is going to fly, you don’t have people at the airport for two, four, six hours then have a flight canceled.”
Clint Henderson, a travel expert at The Points Guy website, said “this seems like the right solution since Air Traffic Control seems unable to handle the normal volume with severely reduced staffing.”
“Right now, the airport is handling about 56 flights an hour, but it’s supposed to be able to handle more than 70 an hour (when weather conditions allow),” Henderson emailed. “It sounds like the FAA wants to keep a limit on flights for at least the next month. United already voluntarily cut 35 flights a day, which seems prudent under the current conditions.”
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., also questioned Duffy about comments he recently made on a radio show about switching his wife’s flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York City so she could avoid flying out of Newark.
Duffy insisted it was due to concerns about delays not about safety.
“I fly out of Newark all the time,” he said.
Owen Hayes reported from Washington, Corky Siemaszko reported from New York City.
