Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport were disrupted again Friday due to another air traffic control outage, the second in recent weeks, causing delays across all three major New York City airports and beyond.
Mike Boyd, president of Boyd Group International and veteran aviation consultant, joins Market Domination to explain how years of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) mismanagement — not staffing or equipment — are at the root of the problem.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here.
Well, air traffic controllers handling flights in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, experiencing another outage on Friday morning. This is the second instance that we know of that's been reported upon in the past several weeks and traffic has been snarled, not just in and out of Newark, but has created a ripple effect across the other two major airports in the New York area, as well as, really across the country here. And it raises questions about safety of the country's air traffic control system. For more, we're bringing in Mike Boyd, president of Boyd Group International, a veteran aviation consultant who watches the industry very closely. Um Mike, when we were talking about who to talk to about this today, yours were the was the first name I thought of because everybody's wondering, what the heck is going on at Newark and how it's gotten to this point. What's your take on it?
It's not Newark. It's the FAA. It's the whole system. Newark is just the the first little gas hole that's coming out of this volcano. It's a lot worse than that. It's not a shortage of people. It's not bad equipment. Well, that's there. It's the fact we've had bad management over the last 30 years. Wonderfully bipartisan. But unless we fix that bad management, I think we are. We're still going to have this happen. And keep in mind, just by cutting back flights, that's fine. The safest airplane is one that doesn't leave the gate. But we have an air transportation system we need to support. It's not being done or has not been done, and we've known about it. This isn't some magic that we just found.
So, Mike, on that point, transportation Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy did announce this this plan, Mike, um, this re replace the air traffic control system. It sounds like the plan includes installing 4,600 new high-speed connections, replacing 618 radars across the country. You know, you read that plan, Mike. Does that sound like the right plan? Is that the right strategy?
It is a plan. We haven't had one. 30 years ago, myself and Mike Captain Mike Biatta testified to Congress on this and nothing's been done. Every DOT secretary since then, we're going to do something. Don't worry about it. This is the first time I've seen any hard numbers, like we're going to get it by, we're going to get this. So, I'm confident now, or I feel a lot more confident than I did, that it's going in the right direction. The issue is we need accountability at the FAA. That's why we got into this mess. There's never been any.
