Key facts
- US Northeast airport operations resumed Monday after telecom lines were repaired.
- Approximately 9,500 US flights were delayed or canceled on Monday due to the outage.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the repairs and the resumption of operations.
- Duffy stated a new air traffic control system will prevent future disruptions.
- Duffy is seeking an additional $30 billion from Congress for air traffic control towers, software, and airports.
Airport operations in the US Northeast resumed on Monday following repairs to a failed telecom circuit and a severed fiber-optic cable, an outage that caused thousands of flights across the United States to be delayed or canceled. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the repairs and the resumption of operations.
Duffy stated that the incident, caused by a failed telecom switch and an accidentally cut fiber optic cable, would not happen again with a new, modern, resilient air traffic control system. He told Fox News that the new architecture would have multiple routes for telecom entry into all facilities, eliminating single or dual points of failure.
On Tuesday, Duffy said he wants Congress to approve another $30 billion for air traffic control towers and software, and airports. Congress approved $12.5 billion last year, but Duffy has sought billions more, upping his request on Tuesday to add another $10 billion for airports.