May 6, 2025 • 7 mins
John Nance speaks with Mendte in the Morning about the issues at Newark Liberty International Airport.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, I know, I know it's confusing. What exactly is
going on at Newark Liberty International Airport and why aren't
other airports in the area having similar problems. For that,
we go to John Nance, the Great John Nance, ABC
News World Aviation analysts, the best in the business and author. John.
(00:22):
Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many questions,
and I know our listeners have so many questions about
what's going on at Newark right now. Maybe you can
just start by explaining what the problem seems to be.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, it's about a threefold problem, Larry. It's going to
be with you, by the way. But I thought of
these circumstances at these nobody's crashed, but there's delays everywhere
at Newark because of these things. First of all, air
traffic control. The air traffic controllers that they lost their radar,
lost the ability to communicate with the airplanes. It's about
(00:57):
a week ago for about ninety seconds. That's an eternity
if you're looking at the blank screen and you've got
dynamic airplanes that go in all over the place. When
they got it back, a number of them took leaves
to just calm down after a while, and you can
you can appreciate this if you know the pressures of
their job. Well, that meant they didn't have enough air
traffic controllers to bring the airplanes in and out, and
(01:19):
so that put delays in immediately. Second, a runway has
been taken out of service for maintenance and that's not
going to be back up for at least a month
or so, and that means that they've lost about a
third of their capacity or take offs and landings. And
then when you put that all together with the ripple effects,
which is the fact that you have all across the
(01:41):
country with things that are planes that are coming in
and out of Newark, they get laid two three, four
hours and the whole system begins to a stagger. Is it?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So here's what I don't understand. I know that Philadelphia
is the hub for Newark and running some of the
things there, and I know that there's other airports all
across the country that has the same equipment and the
same outdated equipment. Why new work?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, I think New York is simply one of the
most busy airports. It is definitely one of our most
busy busiest word, I'm trying to find airport by the
same token. The fact is that when you put as
much pressure as they do on the equipment in any
particular place, you're going to have a breakdown at some
point in time. I'm not even sure that anybody knows
(02:31):
precisely what happened the other day, because it actually was
in the Philadelphia facility that handles the southern portion flights
coming in and out of Newark. But anyway you look
across the country. Our first problem is this, we're three
thousand people short of what we should have. We had
about fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. We need about three
(02:52):
thousand more. And when you consider how long it takes
to bring somebody in and train them, and the fact
that if you hire one hundred people, maybe you'll get
to money that can go on through the course, and
that takes years. We've had this problem for a long time,
and this problem actually comes right back to Congress's doorstep.
They're the ones that have not appropriated the money, and
(03:13):
this has been going on for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You talked about the real concern, and I heard the
Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy talking about this last night
and he said, look, there's no chance of a crash,
there's no chance of an accident. We have backups for that.
That would make me feel great if that was true.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, that's a big glib, shall we say. Aviation safety
is a very delicately balanced situation, and it relies on
an awful lot of different things that have to be
paid attention to all the time. So when you talk
about you know, I guarantee If that's what he was saying,
that you're not going to have any safety issue out
(03:59):
of this, it's not entirely true. Now, what he's trying
to say is that we're backing off. They're backing off
on the number of flights in and out to match
the number of controllers that's where coming from, and by
doing so, they will not jeopardize the margins of safety.
I hope they're right. I certainly think they're on the
right track with that. But by the same token, when
(04:21):
you disrupt anything in commercial aviation, you want a risk
that you are lowering, just to some degree, the margins
of safety. That doesn't mean you're going to guarantee an accident,
but it does mean that you've got to be even
more careful about everything you're doing. Certainly when it comes
into delays and people sitting out there on the runway.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It also sounded like the Transportation Secretary says he wanted
to fast track the process of getting new air traffic
controllers for some reason. That sounds like that's not a
great idea.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, first of all, it's a deceptive and I think
he's probably deceiving self a little bit on that. I
know that's what everybody would like to do. But the
thing is just to say, if you hire a hundred
potential air traffic controllers, no matter how well you have
vetted those applicants, you're going to get maybe twenty maybe
twenty five of them out the other end. And that's
after maybe a year of investment of money and time
(05:17):
and everything else. The academy that they run there is
world class, but it takes about a year and a
half to get an air draffic controller to the point
of being able to see anything to an airplane anywhere
at any time, and then to get them up to
full capabilities to be trustworthy in a tower like Newark,
for instance, or Chicago will hair That takes.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Years, right, So how long is Nowork going to be
dealing with this?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I'm afraid it's going to be probably another couple
of weeks before we begin to see a little relief
in terms of the number of controllers in the facilities there,
so that we're not holding up the system based on
the lack of controllers. By the same token, the runway,
it won't be ready, I think until June. I'm not
absolutely positive about that, but you don't wonder his Like
(06:06):
anytime we go down the road and you see a
road torn up and long lines of traffic, you wonder,
why did they have to do it now. I'm not
sure there is a better time to do it, but
it certainly does reduce the number of take office and
landings that they can they can do in an hour
at door.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Luckily they have options here. So you would suggest LaGuardia
or JFK or Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I couldn't tease you say, yeah, I get on Amtrak
and go to Philadelphia. But the thing is that JFK
is probably the best reliever for a shorter term or
you know, short hops cross the country at not international ones. LaGuardia,
of course, is they tried and true, even though very
pressed airport, but the pressure is on all the eastern
(06:50):
airports right now, even Dulles for that matter of scene
increase traffic.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Oh that's interesting. So you think we're going to see
these similar problems at other airports.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I don't think so. So well, I'll put it this way.
Unless we have another sequence like this one where all
of a sudden they're missing that many people in the
tower and in the air traffic control approach and departure facilities,
then no, it probably is sustainable. But you see the
sustainability that we've had so far as with people are
working six days a week and tremendous amounts of overtime.
(07:21):
These are human beings. They will burn out. We all
will do that after a while, and no matter how
good the money is, you've got to get people a rest.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Absolutely, John Nance always great ABC World News, aviation analysts
and authors. Thanks so much for your time anytime. Ry Thanks,
Thank you, John,
Yeah, I know, I know it's confusing. What exactly is
going on at Newark Liberty International Airport and why aren't
other airports in the area having similar problems. For that,
we go to John Nance, the Great John Nance, ABC
News World Aviation analysts, the best in the business and author. John.
(00:22):
Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many questions,
and I know our listeners have so many questions about
what's going on at Newark right now. Maybe you can
just start by explaining what the problem seems to be.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, it's about a threefold problem, Larry. It's going to
be with you, by the way. But I thought of
these circumstances at these nobody's crashed, but there's delays everywhere
at Newark because of these things. First of all, air
traffic control. The air traffic controllers that they lost their radar,
lost the ability to communicate with the airplanes. It's about
(00:57):
a week ago for about ninety seconds. That's an eternity
if you're looking at the blank screen and you've got
dynamic airplanes that go in all over the place. When
they got it back, a number of them took leaves
to just calm down after a while, and you can
you can appreciate this if you know the pressures of
their job. Well, that meant they didn't have enough air
traffic controllers to bring the airplanes in and out, and
(01:19):
so that put delays in immediately. Second, a runway has
been taken out of service for maintenance and that's not
going to be back up for at least a month
or so, and that means that they've lost about a
third of their capacity or take offs and landings. And
then when you put that all together with the ripple effects,
which is the fact that you have all across the
(01:41):
country with things that are planes that are coming in
and out of Newark, they get laid two three, four
hours and the whole system begins to a stagger. Is it?
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So here's what I don't understand. I know that Philadelphia
is the hub for Newark and running some of the
things there, and I know that there's other airports all
across the country that has the same equipment and the
same outdated equipment. Why new work?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, I think New York is simply one of the
most busy airports. It is definitely one of our most
busy busiest word, I'm trying to find airport by the
same token. The fact is that when you put as
much pressure as they do on the equipment in any
particular place, you're going to have a breakdown at some
point in time. I'm not even sure that anybody knows
(02:31):
precisely what happened the other day, because it actually was
in the Philadelphia facility that handles the southern portion flights
coming in and out of Newark. But anyway you look
across the country. Our first problem is this, we're three
thousand people short of what we should have. We had
about fourteen thousand air traffic controllers. We need about three
(02:52):
thousand more. And when you consider how long it takes
to bring somebody in and train them, and the fact
that if you hire one hundred people, maybe you'll get
to money that can go on through the course, and
that takes years. We've had this problem for a long time,
and this problem actually comes right back to Congress's doorstep.
They're the ones that have not appropriated the money, and
(03:13):
this has been going on for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
You talked about the real concern, and I heard the
Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy talking about this last night
and he said, look, there's no chance of a crash,
there's no chance of an accident. We have backups for that.
That would make me feel great if that was true.
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Well, that's a big glib, shall we say. Aviation safety
is a very delicately balanced situation, and it relies on
an awful lot of different things that have to be
paid attention to all the time. So when you talk
about you know, I guarantee If that's what he was saying,
that you're not going to have any safety issue out
(03:59):
of this, it's not entirely true. Now, what he's trying
to say is that we're backing off. They're backing off
on the number of flights in and out to match
the number of controllers that's where coming from, and by
doing so, they will not jeopardize the margins of safety.
I hope they're right. I certainly think they're on the
right track with that. But by the same token, when
(04:21):
you disrupt anything in commercial aviation, you want a risk
that you are lowering, just to some degree, the margins
of safety. That doesn't mean you're going to guarantee an accident,
but it does mean that you've got to be even
more careful about everything you're doing. Certainly when it comes
into delays and people sitting out there on the runway.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
It also sounded like the Transportation Secretary says he wanted
to fast track the process of getting new air traffic
controllers for some reason. That sounds like that's not a
great idea.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, first of all, it's a deceptive and I think
he's probably deceiving self a little bit on that. I
know that's what everybody would like to do. But the
thing is just to say, if you hire a hundred
potential air traffic controllers, no matter how well you have
vetted those applicants, you're going to get maybe twenty maybe
twenty five of them out the other end. And that's
after maybe a year of investment of money and time
(05:17):
and everything else. The academy that they run there is
world class, but it takes about a year and a
half to get an air draffic controller to the point
of being able to see anything to an airplane anywhere
at any time, and then to get them up to
full capabilities to be trustworthy in a tower like Newark,
for instance, or Chicago will hair That takes.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Years, right, So how long is Nowork going to be
dealing with this?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Well, I'm afraid it's going to be probably another couple
of weeks before we begin to see a little relief
in terms of the number of controllers in the facilities there,
so that we're not holding up the system based on
the lack of controllers. By the same token, the runway,
it won't be ready, I think until June. I'm not
absolutely positive about that, but you don't wonder his Like
(06:06):
anytime we go down the road and you see a
road torn up and long lines of traffic, you wonder,
why did they have to do it now. I'm not
sure there is a better time to do it, but
it certainly does reduce the number of take office and
landings that they can they can do in an hour
at door.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Luckily they have options here. So you would suggest LaGuardia
or JFK or Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I couldn't tease you say, yeah, I get on Amtrak
and go to Philadelphia. But the thing is that JFK
is probably the best reliever for a shorter term or
you know, short hops cross the country at not international ones. LaGuardia,
of course, is they tried and true, even though very
pressed airport, but the pressure is on all the eastern
(06:50):
airports right now, even Dulles for that matter of scene
increase traffic.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
Oh that's interesting. So you think we're going to see
these similar problems at other airports.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I don't think so. So well, I'll put it this way.
Unless we have another sequence like this one where all
of a sudden they're missing that many people in the
tower and in the air traffic control approach and departure facilities,
then no, it probably is sustainable. But you see the
sustainability that we've had so far as with people are
working six days a week and tremendous amounts of overtime.
(07:21):
These are human beings. They will burn out. We all
will do that after a while, and no matter how
good the money is, you've got to get people a rest.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Absolutely, John Nance always great ABC World News, aviation analysts
and authors. Thanks so much for your time anytime. Ry Thanks,
Thank you, John,
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