FAA says Newark fixed

The Federal Aviation Administration says the telecom problems that snarled Newark air traffic last year have been fixed, and it is using that case to press for a broader national overhaul. (kcci.com) At a Department of Transportation event on April 21, acting chief technology officer Rebecca Guy said, “We fixed Newark” and said the agency is replacing old copper lines with fiber, wireless and satellites. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he is asking Congress for another $10 billion for the next phase of the work. (kcci.com) (usnews.com) Congress already provided $12.5 billion in 2025 for air-traffic-control upgrades, but Duffy said much of the new request would go to software that can spread flights across airspace more efficiently and cut delays. He said the Federal Aviation Administration has already replaced nearly half of its copper wiring, converted about 270 radio sites and moved 17 towers to electronic flight strips. (usnews.com) (kcci.com) Newark became the administration’s clearest example after controllers handling its traffic lost radar and radio contact with planes for about 90 seconds on April 28, 2025. The outage triggered days of delays and exposed how a single telecom failure could disrupt one of the country’s busiest air corridors. (cnbc.com) (oig.dot.gov) The Newark problem was tied to a move the Federal Aviation Administration made in July 2024, when it shifted Newark approach control from New York to Philadelphia to deal with chronic understaffing at the New York facility. Federal watchdogs later said the April 2025 blackout was caused by a burnt copper wire. (oig.dot.gov) (faa.gov) The agency responded by capping traffic at Newark in May 2025, limiting the airport to 28 arrivals and 28 departures an hour during runway construction, with 34 arrivals and departures an hour outside that period through October 25, 2025. The Federal Aviation Administration later extended limits into October 2026, though it raised the hourly cap to 72 total operations from 68. (faa.gov 1) (faa.gov 2) A key repair came on July 3, 2025, when the Federal Aviation Administration said it switched Newark’s New York-Philadelphia link to a new fiber-optic network with two separate communication paths. The agency said the setup was designed so equipment would keep working if one path failed. (faa.gov) Duffy is now pitching Newark as proof that the same telecom rebuild should happen nationwide by the end of 2028. The Federal Aviation Administration says that plan would leave airports with 5,000 new high-speed network connections, 27,000 new radios and 612 new radars. (usnews.com) The funding fight is not over, but the administration’s message is simple: fix the wires first, then rebuild the software that tells planes where to go. Newark is the example officials keep returning to. (kcci.com) (usnews.com)