Newark Liberty International Airport, located in Newark, New Jersey, has had major delays over the week. Newark is one of the busiest airports in the country, so these delays have an effect on many customers looking to get in and out of the country. These delays are due to many different issues that have been occurring at the airport. According to writer Diaz of NPR, “Several compounding issues are hitting Newark Liberty International Airport at once: air traffic controller staffing shortages, aging technology, bad weather and the closure of one of the airport’s busiest runways” (Diaz, May 7).

All of the delays started on Monday, April 28th, after the air traffic control had an outage, which caused every computer screen to go black for 60-90 seconds. Some employees ended up taking leave because of this incident. According to Mascarenhas, Muntean, Marsh and Musa of CNN, “At least five FAA employees took 45 days of leave as a result of the incident, sources tell CNN” (Mascarenhas, Muntean, Marsh, Musa, May 6).

Many of the flights that have been affected by all of these disruptions have been flights with United Airlines. Due to these delays, United have started giving out free ticket changes to people that have had their flights delayed. United CEO, Scott Kirby, has said in a letter that he doesn’t believe the issues will be resolved anytime soon. In his letter, he specifically said, “It’s now clear – and the FAA tells us – that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead” (Kirby, May 2).