Newark Liberty Airport Braces for More Chaos as Real ID Deadline Looms

The new Real ID program will be a real headache for many airports across the country — especially for Newark-Liberty International Airport.The recent travel woes at New Jersey’s largest airport are poised to become worse this week as the deadline for the use of Real ID for air travel finally takes hold. It will add another operational kink to the airport, which has faced a deluge of flight delays and cancellations over the past seven days due to a shortage of FAA air traffic controllers. Also, renovations have shut down one of the airport’s runways.Conditions traveling in and out of the flight hub have become so horrific that one of its own staffers is warning travelers to stay far away.“Things need to change. It’s not a safe situation for the flying public,” the unidentified controller told a reporter for MSNBC. “Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs.”United Airlines, which operates the majority of flights in and out of Newark, is expected to cancel 10 percent of its charters there for the foreseeable future. The company has called out the FAA for a litany of issues, from aging technology to inadequate staffing.“Technology that FAA air traffic controllers rely on to manage the airplanes coming in and out of Newark airport failed — resulting in dozens of diverted flights, hundreds of delayed and canceled flights and worst of all, thousands of customers with disrupted travel plans,” United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, said in a recent statement. “Unfortunately, the technology issues were compounded as over 20% of the FAA controllers for [Newark] walked off the job.”“Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it’s now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead.”Adding fuel to the fire, Newark-Liberty will require travelers to have a Real ID to get through TSA checkpoints starting Wednesday, when the new federal mandate takes effect.“I know everyone is fighting to get one,” Melissa Sussko of Nutley, New Jersey, said to the New York Times recently. “You can’t find any, at all.”Many residents of the Garden State have been unable to find open appointments through the Motor Vehicle Commission’s website in the run-up to Wednesday’s deadline.“I wanted to get a Real ID. I can’t find the appointment,” a driving instructor from North Caldwell, New Jersey, Al Sohi, said to the Times. “It’s terrible. They should do something to accommodate all the people who want a Real ID.”The NJMVC will begin this week designating every other Tuesday for Real ID appointments and adding 5,200 appointments beginning May 20.“With federal enforcement approaching, the Motor Vehicle Commission is dedicated to assisting as many New Jerseyans as possible who need or want to get a Real ID,” the acting MVC chief administrator, Latrecia Littles-Floyd, said in a statement to NJ Advance Media.The backups and cancellations at Newark-Liberty led Senator Schumer of New York to call for an investigation Monday.“I have asked the Office of Inspector General to thoroughly investigate what’s going on at Newark and in the East Coast, so these problems don’t get worse and spread all across the nation,” he said in a statement to Fox News’s Chad Pergram. “To say that there is just minor turbulence at Newark airport and the FAA, that would be the understatement of the year. We’re here because the FAA is really a mess. This mess needs a real forensic look, a deep look into it.” He added: “We have 1990 technology being used in 2025.”

Newark Liberty Airport Braces for More Chaos as Real ID Deadline Looms

Newark Liberty Airport Braces for More Chaos as Real ID Deadline Looms

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