Overview

• On June 4 the FAA ordered a ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport after air traffic controller staffing dropped critically low.
• All inbound flights were held at their origin as of 5:45 p.m. local time, according to FlightAware.
• Newark has been restricted to 28 arrivals and departures per hour to manage staffing and runway construction, with plans to increase to 34 once a new runway is certified by June 10.
• A series of technical outages at the Philadelphia TRACON facility beginning April 28 led to five controllers taking trauma leaves, leaving only 16 certified controllers and five supervisors on duty.
• The FAA is dealing with a nationwide shortage of roughly 3,000 controllers and has proposed a multibillion-dollar modernization plan to upgrade aging air traffic management systems.