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Duffy Celebrates the Early Reopening of Newark's Runway, Jun. 2, 2025

June 2, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:30:56

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

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy gave an update at Newark Liberty International Airport, in the Department of Transportation’s upload of the June 2, 2025 event, alongside the FAA’s acting administrator, the Port Authority’s Newark aviation leadership, and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, as Duffy introduced the participants. The occasion was the reopening of Newark’s runway: a 60-day project completed 13 days early, worked around the clock, as Duffy stated the schedule — with the pace quickened further, he said, once the airport’s spring difficulties made the need plain. The runway was in use for departures that day, as the speakers stated it, with technical operations to certify it for arrivals next; once the new arrival instrument landing systems are certified, the airport’s arrival rate rises to 34 per hour, as stated at the event.

Duffy paired the celebration with the remaining problem, as he described it: a glitch in the system the FAA had fixed in software, and the telecom line from the Philadelphia TRACON to the New York facility, which Verizon had rebuilt in less than a month as a priority — the new fiber line built but still in the FAA’s testing process before it could be stood up, as he stated its status.

Why it matters

The June 2 reopening is the first completed deliverable of the Newark repair campaign: a runway back 13 days early, an arrival-rate figure attached to the certification still to come, and the telecom fix — the campaign’s harder half — publicly tracked from the same podium.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the Newark runway reopened 13 days early on June 2, 2025, with a stated arrival rate of 34 per hour once arrival certification completes. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy at Newark Liberty International Airport” (official upload, embedded above; description dates the event June 2, 2025). Remarks and figures as delivered at the event.