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Flight disruptions ease at Newark, Philadelphia after equipment outage
CNBC • • general
Key Points:
- Flight disruptions eased on Tuesday following a fiber cable break that cut off air traffic controllers from key radio and radar feeds, causing major travel delays in the Philadelphia and New York area.
- About 60 flights (5% of the day's schedule) were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport and around 30 flights (2%) at Philadelphia International Airport, significantly fewer than the previous day.
- The issue stemmed from a Verizon fiber-optic line accidentally cut by a NJ Transit construction crew, which disabled a backup system at an air traffic control facility.
- On Monday, the FAA halted traffic into Newark, forcing over 100 flights to divert, with many international passengers rerouted to cities such as Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Boston.
- United Airlines offered extra pay to flight attendants for Newark trips to help reduce delays caused by the disruptions.
