The United States Transport Secretary Sean Duffy speaks to journalists at a press conference at Newark Liberty International Airport at the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport on May 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty images
The Trump administration announced on Monday the creation of an emergency working group made up of executive experts from Verizon,, L3harris And the Federal Aviation Administration to solve the current telecommunications problems at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Transport secretary, Sean Duffy, said the goal is to add three new telecommunications connections between New York and Philadelphia to ensure the redundancy of communications, so that if a line drops, the others will be held.
Although he did not provide an exact schedule for completion, Duffy said he had spoken to the CEO of Verizon, Hans Vestberg on Sunday and that Verizon works “as quickly as possible”.
The announcement follows three incidents in the last two weeks when air traffic controllers responsible for guiding planes in and outside Newark have lost their main telecommunications lines. The first two events, on April 28 and May 9, involved 90 -second breakdowns in which the controllers lost the ability to see and speak with planes.
The breakdowns sparked hundreds of flight delays and disrupted trips for thousands of people. Some air traffic controllers have taken time to recover from the constraints of breakdowns, according to the FAA.
When the main telecommunications line fell for the third time on Sunday, the backup line worked properly and the controllers did not lose all communications, because the FAA had implemented a software correction, Duffy said in a briefing with journalists. However, air controllers were concerned and published a ground stopping in the center of the New York region for 45 minutes, according to Duffy.
During the briefing, the acting administrator of the FAA, Chris Rocheleau, said that the new working group was made up of “good technical experts” in order to “focus on this every day and be transparent on the progress we make”.
L3harris is an FAA entrepreneur, and Verizon supports the telecommunications lines that come up against the installation of Philadelphia where the controllers supervise planes in Newark, according to Duffy.
The creation of the working group takes place less than a week after the Ministry of Transport announced a new plan to spend tens of billions of dollars to modernize the American air traffic control system. Duffy said he was waiting for the congress to approve the plan.
Duffy also plans to convene a “delays reduction” meeting on Wednesday with all the airlines that fly from Newark airport.
“The objective is to have a manageable number of flights to Newark,” said Duffy. “Families should not have to wait four or five hours for a flight that never takes off.”
– Leslie Josephs de CNBC contributed to this report.