My gosh. We know that the air traffic control situation at and around Newark International Airport (EWR) is currently a complete mess, as air traffic control centers are severely understaffed, all while air traffic controllers have suffered repeated full radio and radar outages. Well, the situation at the airport may be worse than ever before at this very moment…
Newark air traffic control crisis reaches new low
In recent hours, rumors have been circulating that Newark had zero air traffic controllers scheduled for this evening, as flagged by @xJonNYC. The New York Post is now reporting on this situation, claiming to have some exclusive insights from an air traffic controller. I can’t speak to the accuracy of this report, but if it’s even a little bit true, it’s beyond shocking.
According to this report, there’s a single qualified air traffic controller scheduled to work at Newark this evening (Monday, May 12, 2025), between 6:30PM and 9:30PM, in addition to a trainee. They’ll be responsible for handling anywhere from 168 to 180 takeoffs and landings, which the controller describes as “pure insanity.” As a point of comparison, that number is usually supposed to be 15 staffers per shift, given that they oversee five radarscopes with different sectors.
What’s even wilder is that the airport was apparently facing a “zero ATC event,” to describe a scenario where no one was scheduled to show up for work. One air traffic controller canceled his day off to come in and work, preventing that scenario from happening.
An FAA spokesperson claimed that there’s “no point at which we will have zero air traffic controllers,” and that there are “at least three controllers scheduled for each hour,” without clarifying how many are fully certified, and how many are trainees. Either way, that’s a long way from standard staffing. The spokesperson also didn’t deny that zero people were scheduled for the shift.
According to the same source, there were only two air traffic controllers working the night shift on Sunday, and he said that he has “never seen anything like this” in decades of being an air traffic controller:
“If you get below half of that standard, so seven, your safety begins to be compromised and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) knows that. So what they’ll do is put out ground stop delays and that’s what we’re seeing across the country. But it’s still just dangerous when 1-3 controllers are getting slammed.”
If there’s any silver lining with this mess…
If there’s any upside to all of this, it’s that hopefully things have finally gotten so bad that they can only get better from here. Our air traffic control system has suffered decades of neglect, with not enough investment in staffing and technology.
The problem is, we just kept letting things worse little by little. Now we’re finally seeing bipartisan efforts to invest in air traffic control infrastructure, and that’s long overdue.
Keep in mind that part of the reason that staffing has gotten even worse in recent times is because some air traffic controllers have “taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” in line with the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, which “covers all federal employees that are physically injured or experience a traumatic event on the job.”
So this is just a cycle of crappiness, and our air traffic controllers and the traveling public deserve better.
Bottom line
Newark Airport is currently having an air traffic control crisis, whereby the region is consistently short staffed. This is for a variety of reasons, including frequent radar and radio outages, which have caused some employees to take trauma leave. That’s all on top of the standard staffing shortages across the country.
The disaster is perhaps reaching a new level today, as zero air traffic controllers were reportedly scheduled for an evening shift. One certified controller ended up coming in on his day off, and is apparently assisted by trainees.
It’s not entirely clear how many trainees there are, but one thing is for sure — the current fragility surrounding staffing is a major problem. I think we all owe the certified controller working at Newark tonight a beer (but, like, later… not during his shift).
What do you make of this Newark air traffic control mess?
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