(NewsNation) — Recent outages at air traffic control centers across the country have been putting travelers on edge.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed Thursday that on Monday earlier this week, a center in Denver that monitors planes across nine states experienced a 90-second outage where it was impossible for them to communicate with pilots.
This recent incident comes days after outages either delayed or canceled hundreds of flights at Newark Liberty International Airport. Delays have continued at the airport since the three outages, some lasting hours.
Because of the problems at Newark’s airport, some travelers have looked to avoid the airport altogether. The FAA has also proposed a plan to reduce the number of flights at the airport.
Newark’s airport averages about 77 flights in and out every hour. The FAA proposal would decrease the number of flights to 56 flights per hour starting June 15, and then after that date, when construction at one of the runways is completed, the number will increase to 68 per hour. United Airlines has already reduced its daily flights at the airport by 10%.
Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said in recent weeks that the country’s current system needs a complete overhaul. At a Senate committee hearing, Duffy said he would need $1.2 billion to upgrade air traffic systems.
An air traffic controller working at Newark Liberty spoke to The Wall Street Journal and said staffing shortages at the airport have been an issue for years, and the controller fears technological issues could cause a fatal mistake at any moment. Duffy told NewsNation he is confident his plan will work quickly and will have support from Congress to get it done.
“Everybody in America flies; this is not a partisan issue,” Duffy said. “I think they’ve all realized how old and antiquated the system is, and it’s starting to show its cracks, and they want a plan they can get behind, and I think we’ve laid that out for them.”