Flight schedules largely returned to normal operations on Tuesday after an air traffic control equipment outage caused widespread disruptions across the Northeast on Monday.
Several dozen delays and cancellations lingered at New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) throughout Tuesday as officials and airlines tried to get back on track.
The hub saw 151 delays and 61 cancellations on Tuesday, according to FlightAware data.
That’s a significant improvement over Monday’s situation, in which Newark was one of the worst-affected airports with more than 600 flights canceled.
“It will take some time to clear all existing delays, so please check with your airline for the latest information,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote in a post on X on Monday evening.
Flights across the region quickly became snarled late Monday morning after a telecom switch failed at Philadelphia TRACON, which is a remote air traffic control facility that handles flights for Philadelphia and New Jersey.
A backup system failed to take over air traffic telecom operations because a construction crew had accidentally cut its fiber line.
After the outage, the FAA declared ground stops at Newark, Philadelphia, and Teterboro airports. But the chaos had a ripple effect throughout the Northeast, and ground stops were also issued for Boston, New York JFK, and New York LaGuardia.
An aerial view of Philadelphia's International Airport. (Photo Credit: Photo by Paul J. Heney.)
Boston was also seeing remaining delays on Tuesday, with 262 flight delays but just 12 cancellations, FlightAware showed.
Duffy said that the telecom lines were repaired by Monday evening, and all airports resumed operations shortly after.
The outage, and resulting inconvenience for travelers, is the latest installment in an ongoing saga of America’s aging air traffic control equipment.
Most towers still operate on outdated technology that is up to 50 years old.
The decaying state of many U.S. air traffic control towers was thrust into the spotlight in 2025, after a similar equipment outage at Newark caused controllers to lose contact with an incoming plane.
The incident was so stressful that controllers had to take mental health leave, leading to short-staffed crews and weeks of flight cancellations at the busy hub.
In the months since, Congress has approved a $12.5 billion plan to overhaul the national air traffic control system with safety upgrades and modern equipment.
However, officials at the Department of Transportation say even that lofty allotment is not enough to complete the ambitious job, and that this week’s outage is a prime example that the project needs a bigger budget.
“We have made incredible progress in overhauling the air traffic control system, but Congress must give us the money to finish the job,” Duffy said.
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