An equipment outage Monday caused flight delays for travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport.
A ground stop was issued around 2 p.m. due to a Federal Aviation Administration equipment outage, officials said. Planes were either stuck on the runway or forced to circle above the airport while waiting to land. Some flights were diverted
In a statement on social media, the airport encouraged people to check with their airline for updated flight status.
As of 6 p.m., there were 287 delays and 127 cancellations at the airport, according to plane tracking website FlightAware. The FAA said the average delay time was 30 minutes for arrivals and 2 hours for departures.
“There is no estimated completion time yet,” Port Authority officials stated on social media around 3:30 p.m.
After the technical issue was resolved, the FAA added that “now there are staffing issues” at its Philadelphia operations center which oversees Newark’s airspace. The “staffing issues” were contributing to the arrival delays.
United, which has a hub at Newark, said it expected “cancellations and delays for the rest of the day due to FAA staffing issue.”
The FAA and air traffic controllers have been the target of Trump administration layoffs.
