Rory O’Neill, WOR national correspondent Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Rory O’Neill about the airport woes in Newark and around the country.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rory O'Neil wl R, National correspondent, Rory, do you like
really hot stuff like hot chicken?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I've been battling this sore throat for over a week now,
and I think it would take something that hot in
order to burn away whatever is cloud in my throat.
So sign me up for the reaper. Oh.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
I can hear it a little bit in your voice
what you should have taken in a week? Wow? Man,
So it hurts too. Does it hurt when you talk?
Because I'll make you talk a lot.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yes, well, when it comes to you, it hurtsport to
listen to you. But yeah, don't hurt. It's been hurting
to talk a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
And I just walked into that too, you did. You
know we've been dealing with Newark Airport here a lot
in the news and it's made national news. But now
there's a report that it's spreading to other airports as well.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well that's the concern, right, And we're going to hear
from the Transportation Secretary later today, perhaps talking about modernization
of the FAA. This has been talked about for decades,
but it's always a moving target, right, I mean, you're
never really going to ever get this technology immediately up
to date. Simultaneously, by the time they roll it out
it's pretty much antiquated all over again. So it's a

(01:13):
it's a real challenge. But you know, this has now
gotten to be a dangerous situation over at Newark, Liberty
apparently playing up a few times now since November of
last year. We've got United Airlines so concerned they're cutting
back on their schedule out of Newark, which of course
is one of their hubs. So it's a it's a
it's a it's a serious reaction to a serious problem.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Well, of course it's going to affect other airports. I
mean right now it's affecting other airports because the delays
in Newark at such a huge airport. It affects the country.
It actually affects the world. But the concern, I guess
is that this is a cautionary tail. If there's a
problem with the equipment, if the copper wires can burn
like it did here, if there's not enough air traffic controllers,

(01:56):
that's a problem for everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well that and then adding the fact that, yeah, you
just mentioned there at the end there's lack of air
traffic controllers. They're down about three thousand of them. The
FAA is putting some of the trainees into some positions
in order to help fill those gaps. They're qualified to
do those jobs. But still you've got what five different
controllers are now out on leave after enduring the crisis

(02:22):
of what happened with the outage back in April. So
a lot of different components here, and there is just
no one quick answer to solve this problem. Because air
traffic controllers take four or five six years to bring
on board, then they have to retire by the age
of fifty six, so it's difficult to get these jobs replaced.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, and I know that the Transportation Secretary is now
talking about giving a bonus to those that hit this
mandatory retirement to stay on, and we'll see if that works.
We'll see if that happens. But it's going to be
fascinated to hear what he says later today. We can
talk about it again tomorrow. Rory O'Neil, wr National correspondent,
Thanks so much, talk to you tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Thanks Larry,