
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Every new administration spends the first year blaming the previous administration for any problems. ; They can be true – or just political bovine poop.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">President Obama blamed the previous George Bush administration so often that it became a running joke. ; In fact, when Washington was hit with a mild earthquake produced by an unnamed faultline, it was said that Obama wanted to name it “Bush’s Fault.”</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In terms of the chaos in the skies over New Jersey, the fault clearly rests on the Biden administration – and specifically at the desk of then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Nothing is ever calm in the airspace over New Jersey. First, we had all those UFOs fill the night sky. Now we have delays and cancellations at Newark’s largest airport. It has the public angry or scared – or both. At least that portion of the public is trying to get in or out of Newark’s Liberty International Airport.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The first problem is the lack of staff – especially air traffic controllers. ; According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), there are more than 3000 air controller slots left unfilled.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Recently, more than 20 percent of controllers in Newark walked off the job, citing YEARS of mismanagement and chronic understaffing. During Biden’s four years in office, he never recognized Newark’s staffing as a problem &#8212; never mentioned it. More importantly, neither did Buttigieg.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Within the first 100 days, the new Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy has taken major steps to address the staff shortage.</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Accelerated Hiring</strong>. Under Duffy’s leadership the FAA has streamlined the hiring process by reducing the steps from eight to five – which reduces the time from recruitment to positioning by five months.</li>



<li><strong>Increased pay and bonuses</strong>. New hires will receive a 30 percent salary increase along with a $5000 bonus upon completion of training. Controllers assigned to hard-to-staff locations will get an additional $10,000.</li>



<li><strong>Retention Incentives</strong>. Some controllers reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 will get a bonus equal to 20 percent of the current salary to stay on for a few more years.</li>



<li><strong>Expanded Training Resources. </strong>To facilitate increased recruitment, more instructors are being hired &#8212; and a new learning center has been established at the Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma.</li>
</ol>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In addition to the staffing problem, the technology has been allowed to deteriorate. The Biden administration utterly failed in attending to new technology. Instead, the old equipment – which could not keep up with the increases in air traffic &#8212; was never upgraded. Some of the computer systems are still using floppy disks – a technology that home computers have not used for more than 30 years. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As a graphic example of the quality of those air control systems, the controllers at the Philadelphia TRACON facility – which oversees Newark – temporarily lost all communication with aircraft. Twice. It was attributed to “equipment malfunction”.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In addition to the TRACON breakdown, there has been an ongoing series of technical failures throughout the system – including radar and radio outages that left controllers several seconds without contact.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Duffy has ordered a complete overhaul of the national air traffic control systems – starting with Newark. ; He has authorized a $3.2 billion infrastructure investment – and has already approved 180 grants to fund airport technology improvements, including new telecom networks and radar systems.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Exacerbating all the aforementioned problems, takeoffs and landings at Newark have been limited by a $121 million runway reconstruction project. It leaves only one runway for landings and takeoffs.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Even with all these new programs, it will take two to three years to bring staffing up to the optimum level and have the new technologies up and running. In the meantime, airlines will have to reduce their schedules for technical and safety reasons. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The chaos at Newark – and elsewhere in the air traffic control system – rests on the shoulders of Biden and Buttigieg. ; What were they thinking? ; In short, Duffy has done in a matter of days what Biden and Buttigieg failed to do in four years.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So, there ‘tis.</p>

Airport chaos at Newark rests on the shoulders of Biden and Buttigieg
