At a House Appropriations Committee meeting yesterday regarding the Department of Transportation’s fiscal budget for 2026, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) referenced Duffy’s comments. She suggested that Duffy “diverted [his] wife from Newark airport to LaGuardia out of a sense of security.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. Former Blackhawk helicopter pilot and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL)—a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has ordered a reduction of traffic at the airport for the “next several weeks,” insisting that it’s safe to fly out of New Jersey’s busiest airport, despite it using an “old” system, which he previously described as being run on “copper wire and floppy disks.”

A staffing shortage, runway construction and deferred maintenance to crucial air traffic technology have made Newark Airport a national laughingstock.

Sunday's incident marks the fourth time in the past two weeks that technical problems have disrupted air traffic at Newark.

A portion of the Denver air route traffic control center experienced a 90-second loss of communications late Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

Staff shortages and equipment failures at Newark Liberty International Airport have raised safety concerns in recent weeks.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. expects flight reductions at Newark airport to linger through summer and into fall as the crucial travel hub struggles to recover from air traffic control glitches that have already disrupted hundreds of flights.