A construction project on one of Newark Liberty International Airport's three main runways wrapped up nearly two weeks early and is now being used for departures, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday.
The airport will be able to increase the number of hourly arrivals and departures from 28 to 34 by June 15.
"When you book your flight, you're going to fly," Duffy said during a news conference at Newark Liberty on Monday. "You don't want to book and wait two hours and be canceled. If you book, you want your plane to take off, and so we are are at an agreement now where if you come to this airport, if you book, you fly."
Crews worked day and night to complete the $121 million construction project ahead of schedule and ease some of the problems at the airport. But Newark has also been plagued by cancellations and delays this spring because of a shortage of air traffic controllers after the FAA had technical problems that twice briefly knocked out the radar and communications at a facility in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of the airport.
“Completing this major portion of the runway rehabilitation 13 days ahead of schedule is a testament to the extraordinary commitment and around-the-clock efforts of construction crews and our airport staff,” said Port Authority Chairman Kevin O’Toole.
Five air traffic controllers went on 45-day trauma leaves after the first radar and communications outage at the Philadelphia facility on April 28, and another one is out on medical leave. That left the facility with only 16 certified controllers and five supervisors. Duffy said Monday there are another 22 controllers in training that should get certified for the airspace sometime between now and next spring.
The FAA limited the Newark airport to 28 arrivals and 28 departures an hour last month because of the construction and staff shortages. The agency said Monday that the runway is now handling departures and will be certified for arrivals by June 10. Once the runway is certified, it will be able to handle 34 arrivals and 34 departures per hour — a level where it will remain through October.
Before the air traffic control problems this spring, 38 or 39 flights typically took off and landed hourly at the airport.
Even with the flight restrictions, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Monday that Newark is the most reliable of the three New York area airports, slightly ahead of both JFK and LaGuardia.
"As challenging as the last few weeks have been — and they have been tough — I really am excited that the future looks brighter for Newark than it ever has in my career," Kirby said.
United has already updated its booking schedule to reflect the higher number of flights into and out of Newark starting June 15. Since flights were restricted last month, Kirby said United has been flying bigger aircraft to keep the same number of seats available for customers.
With more available seats, he said airfares through Newark right now "are better than they're probably going to ever be in the years to come."
In addition to the runway, the FAA also recently upgraded the software at the air traffic control facility after a second radar outage May 9. That helped prevent a repeat problem on May 11, when there was another issue with the lines carrying the radar signal being down from New York.
Verizon has installed a new fiber optic line between Philadelphia and New York after the problems, but that isn't expected to go into service until July after testing is completed.
