Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) because of telecommunications and equipment issues at an air traffic control center in Philadelphia.
The flight delays began on April 28, 2025, and continued into the evening. The airport confirmed that it was experiencing “residual delays” on April 29, 2025, and advised passengers to check with their airlines for flight updates.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that the issue was related to problems with telecommunications and radar equipment at the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), which oversees air traffic for Newark airport. The agency noted that “staffing issues” at TRACON had contributed to the incident.
FlightAware, a real-time flight tracking platform, reported 77 cancellations and 168 delays on the first day of the outage. However, passengers were still feeling the impact of the outage the following day, which saw 14 cancellations and 122 delays. At the time of writing on April 30, 2025, there two flights have been canceled flights and nine have been delayed.
CBS News reported that on the first day of the incident, some aircraft were forced to remain on runways or circle in holding patterns, while others were diverted to alternate airports. United Airlines, the largest carrier at EWR airport, alone diverted 35 flights to alternate airports. The carrier issued a warning that travels to or from certain airports could be affected, adding that flights could be rescheduled but must be departing between April 27, 2025, and May 2, 2025.
Staffing shortfalls have become a growing concern in US aviation. At the start of 2024, the FAA noted that there was a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers in the United States.
On February 27, 2025, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared that the country needed the “best and brightest” to be fast tracked into the FAA’s academy at the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. Backing the recruitment drive, SpaceX owner Elon Musk pleaded with retired air traffic controllers to return to the role.
