| Flights in the Northeast were snarled Monday after an equipment outage at an air traffic control facility halted operations at Newark Liberty International and triggered on and off stops at New York's other main airports. United Airlines Holdings Inc. slashed flights out of Newark, while the outage left passengers stranded for hours and delayed visitors bound for this week's United Nations General Assembly. The FAA late on Monday lifted ground stops at Newark Liberty International and New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, which handles private jets, according to advisories from the Federal Aviation Administration. At different points throughout the day, traffic was halted at Philadelphia International Airport, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International. United, which has one of its biggest hubs at Newark, advised affected customers that they could rebook their trips for free until Sept. 23. "We know this outage is a significant disruption for our customers," United said in a statement Monday afternoon. "Once it is resolved, we will work to safely get them to their destinations, and we have issued a travel waiver to give them the flexibility to manage their travel plans." More than half of Newark's scheduled departures were canceled, as of 4:55 p.m., according to tracker FlightAware. About the same number of scheduled arrivals were also canceled. ALSO READ: US Issues Middle East Travel Warning For 10 Nations Amid Saudi-Houthi Conflict Philadelphia, Teterboro and Newark experienced hours-long delays. The outage comes as New York hosts the United Nations General Assembly this week that will see leaders from around the world converging on the city. "The timing is absolutely horrible," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told reporters during an event in Washington. "I'm very sorry for the delays and cancellations that the traveling public is experiencing, but their safety is the most important thing." The outage occurred due to the primary circuit failing at a Philadelphia facility that guides flights into and out of the Newark and Philadelphia airports, Bedford said. The backup fiber optic cable had a cut that will take about 13 hours to repair, Bedford said. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post to social media that an Amtrak construction crew accidentally cut the fiber line. Verizon Communications Inc. said it has a fiber cable running adjacent to the Amtrak rail line in New Jersey. "Construction contractors working in the area dug up and cut our cable," Richard Young, a spokesman for Verizon said in an email. The company bears no responsibility for the incident, the Verizon spokesman added. The Philadelphia facility is the same site that had major technology breakdowns in 2025 that caused multiple disruptions. Duffy pointed to the issues in his push for a large-scale modernization of air traffic control equipment in the US. ALSO READ: Festival Travel Set To Get Costlier: International Airfare May Rise 5-20% — Here's Why Both Duffy and Bedford said on Monday that the recent circuit failure again underscores the importance of modernization. "It's crazy to see how we're having to chase these 50-year-old, obsolete circuit problems," Bedford said. Technical issues can quickly have extensive knock-on effects for flights. In the UK on Monday, a brief glitch knocked out operations at a crucial center in Scotland, leading to delays. The issue came two weeks after a massive countrywide disruption in UK airspace. |
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