← Videos · Economy, Tariffs & Trade

Duffy Gives the Latest Update on Newark Airport, May 28, 2025

May 28, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:27:01

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy gave the latest update on Newark Airport, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the May 28, 2025 briefing, alongside the FAA’s deputy administrator, as he introduced him. He recapped the spring’s outages as he stated the sequence: on April 28 and again on May 9, a 30-second telecom outage took radar down, with the scopes’ 60-second reboot making 90 seconds without radar in total; the department found a glitch in the system at the Philadelphia TRACON and deployed a software update that fixed it — proven, he said, on May 11, when the main line went down and the backup line fired as intended. A two-second radio static event followed on May 20, as he stated it.

On the three Newark issues as he listed them — runway, telecom, and staffing — he reported: the runway’s concrete was laid and striping under way, with a target date of June 15 to bring it online that the Port Authority might beat, the crews having worked seven days a week, 16 to 18 hours a day, as he stated the pace; Verizon had laid the brand-new fiber line between Philadelphia and New York in 30 days, with connections and testing under way and a turnover to the new line possible at the start of July if testing goes well, as he stated the target; and at the Philadelphia TRACON, of 22 certified controllers, five had taken trauma leave and one was on medical leave, with 16 more controllers — already certified in other airspaces — in training for certification on that airspace, as he stated the staffing figures.

Why it matters

The May 28 briefing is the Newark repair campaign with dates attached: a runway target of June 15, a fiber turnover target of the start of July, and the staffing hole quantified — six of 22 certified controllers out, 16 in the training pipeline behind them.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Newark targets stated May 28, 2025 — runway online by June 15 and turnover to the new Philadelphia–New York fiber line at the start of July, as stated by Secretary Duffy. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Provides the Latest Update on Newark Airport” (official upload, embedded above; description dates the update May 28, 2025). Remarks and figures as delivered by Secretary Duffy at the briefing.