more chaos in the skies as air traffic controllers once again lost radar and communication with planes coming in and out of Newark airport the outage happened around 3:55 this morning and lasted about 90 seconds according to the FAA the Federal Aviation Administration this is the second time that communication went dark for 90 seconds between pilots and air traffic controllers the first was on April 28th leading to several controllers taking trauma leave only worsening staffing shortages in the agency yesterday US Department of Transportation Secretary Sha Duffy revealed a three-year multi-billion dollar plan to upgrade the antiquated aviation system but the FAA is severely short staffed after Doge cuts significantly reduce the workforce including leadership that would oversee the upgrades and those upgrades will take years to finish new Jersey's fifth congressional representative Josh Godheimer who is running for governor visited Newark airport today demanding a swifter response to the crisis so is it safe to fly i'm joined now by Henry Hardvelt an airline travel industry expert who's the founder and president of Atmosphere Research Group henry thanks so much for joining us tonight uh the question that is on my mind I imagine it's on the minds of a lot of other people is it safe to fly right now especially out of Newark airport it is safe to fly uh and I think it's important to note that airlines and the FAA have trained and have procedures for what to do when uh there are these uh losses in communications so it is perfectly safe to fly i will be flying on not only Monday Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday of next week so I'm not afraid to fly and no one else should be either um that's re reassuring on some level to hear but we do know that this is the second time that air traffic control lost communication with pilots for about 90 seconds help us understand what happens in 90 seconds in the sky well look it is alarming and it is certainly uh unusual to lose communications twice in the span of a week what happens is basically pilots go into if you will a virtual hold they don't change altitude or anything unless and until they receive any kind of command from the control tower or air traffic control so for example uh uh in the overnight uh loss that happened one uh plane was told to remain at least 3,000 ft or more above the ground and others were uh followed the instructions their companies gave them um by no means are these communications losses acceptable the airlines don't like it the FAA doesn't like it and we know that they have to be fixed we see the airlines responding by grounding a lot of their flights they're cancelling flights they're slowing them down um we've heard from the Trump administration that there's a commitment to get our system modernized we saw Secretary Department of Transportation Secretary Shawn Duffy yesterday lay out a three-year plan help us understand what repairs are actually needed well look first I respect and appreciate the uh secretary's commitment to uh modernizing air traffic control uh and I like his enthusiasm for it but this is much more than a three-year project uh the secretary has outlined rebuilding basically all of air traffic control replacing outmoded copper wires with new fiber building additional air traffic control centers replacing outdated radar facilities and more it is as close to perhaps truly is a toptobottom renovation of what we know as air traffic control and if it's accomplished and that's a big if uh it could be the most comprehensive updating that we have seen in air traffic control perhaps since the dawn of the jet age are there temporary fixes that can be put in place while this kind of major overhaul is happening to ensure safety while this year'slong plan multi-billion dollar plan rolls out well I think we need to isolate this first we've got the unusual problems that have happened with Newark and United Airlines Newark's uh largest airline customer has advocated that the airport be returned from a level two airport meaning no slots to a level three airport where the takeoff and landing slots like we have at LaGuardia Airport and Kennedy International Airport explain that a bit further Henry explain what that means the level one to level two to level three right so so going from level two to level three means that you go from Newark today where any airline can basically file a flight and land and take off where whenever they want provided there's a gate available to an environment where there are a finite number of takeoff and landing slots available each hour united has advocated that this be capped at 77 arrivals uh per hour and an equal number of takeoffs um that is below the current level of of takeoffs and landings which can be 80 or more an hour um and it's less even than United would have had several years ago so what United is saying is they're willing to support reintroducing these takeoff and landing slots so that there is a more predictable flow of aircraft arrivals and departures and that means all airlines flying in and out of New York will will in theory have better reliability it should reduce the delays at least in good weather what could the trickle effect of that decision be if that does happen does that mean fewer flights harder to get onto perhaps more expensive if we have fewer flights flying in and out of Newark what it would mean is that the airlines that are there now would somehow be protected they wouldn't lose the right to serve Newark but they you know all airlines especially airlines that have more operations there such as United might have to take a haircut to the number of flights they operate which routes which flights we don't know that yet now United has in the past uh used larger planes at slot controlled airports when it needs to to preserve the number of seats and keep fairs more affordable i'm not sure if that's what United will choose to do in this case a lot depends again on which routes they end up having to modify we know that there's construction happening also it's like like the perfect storm at Newark airport right now what is your advice to folks as we head into the summer months and they plan their vacations if you are flying in and out of Newark during the summer with runway construction underway make sure you give yourself enough time not just to get to and through the airport but double check the amount of time you may have at any connecting point uh along the way whether it is in the US or abroad because if your flight is subject to a delay even in good weather you want to make sure you have enough buffer between the time you're scheduled to arrive and scheduled to depart yeah and remember summer uh tra uh season brings thunderstorms and other bad weather that creates additional delays so be patient and be a smart traveler we've got to leave it there henry Hardvelt uh airline travel industry expert thank you for the expertise for your perspective we appreciate it thanks [Music]