I forgot to hit post on this earlier but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was on CNBC this morning talking to Squawk Box on the issues at Newark Airport. He hit the obvious things like yes air traffic is still safe and yes Newark airport is safe as well but more importantly he hit on some key things most people likely do not know. For instance when they are having issues like they have had they slow down air traffic to allow for the controllers to address the issues and/or catch up. You also cannot just move a air traffic controller from one location to another. It takes up to a year to train a person at a given airport on the area. Air traffic controllers have to retire at the age of 56 but many hit the retirement threshold earlier for example at 51. To entice them to stay on for a few more years the FAA has offered 20% bonus to those who postpone retirement.

Last but not least came down to the concern about ticket prices increasing as traffic is diverted to other airports nearby. Well it turns out that the Sec. of Transportation has the ability to force the airlines to all meet and discuss what they are going to do to avoid that issue. Sec. Duffy has done so and will actually be meeting with the heads of the airlines tomorrow to hammer out a plan to fix this issue for now.

Overall this was super insightful and it turns out that old copper wiring from 40/50 years ago isnt as good as fiber optic leading to this issue. Congress is going to have to spend some money here to finish replacing the copper wiring for not only Newark but other major airports across the US.