FAA cancels New York ground delays triggered by staffing issues
Travelers are pictured at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in the Queens borough of New York
By Pete Muntean and Marnie Hunter, CNN
The Federal Aviation Administration has canceled an earlier warning that flights in and out of New York City area airports could be delayed up to two hours Monday night because of a shortage of air traffic controllers.
“The New York City airspace now has some additional staffing, allowing us to cancel the ground delays at Newark Liberty International Airport and John F. Kennedy International. Passengers should continue to check Fly.faa.gov and their airline.”
Earlier in the day, the FAA said flights could be delayed up to two hours due to staffing issues.
“Departure and arrival delays this evening could approach two hours at John F. Kennedy International, New York LaGuardia and Newark Liberty International airports,” the FAA said in a statement.
A publicly available FAA advisory showed staffing issues at the New York Air Route Traffic Control Center, an air traffic control facility located 50 miles east of Manhattan on Long Island. The FAA advisory said delays were anticipated from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.
Airlines have pointed at air traffic controller staffing issues as a reason for massive flight cancellations this summer, though the FAA asserts that most delays are because of the airlines.
According to data from flight tracking site FlightAware, 48,000 US flights were canceled between May 27, the Friday before Memorial Day, and August 14. That figure represents 2.3% of the flights scheduled.
Nearly 483,000 US flights were delayed during that period, or about 24% of flights.
Bad weather has compounded other operational challenges this summer.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a CNN interview last week that while weather disrupted a recent weekend’s air traffic,”it shouldn’t have created the kind of ripple effects through the system that it did.
“That is something that to me is an indication that we still have not seen the improvements that we need, that the system is very brittle,” Buttigieg said last week on CNN’s New Day.
This story has been updated with information on the cancellation of the ground delays.
The-CNN-Wire
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Top image: Travelers wait for flights at LaGuardia Airport in New York on July 1, 2022. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
