Newark, New Jersey's airport is a mess. It was a mess when I worked in New Jersey; Newark Liberty International Airport was the most broken airport I had ever seen in over a decade of globe-trotting as a corporate consultant. Escalators were broken, elevators didn't work, and, to be perfectly honest, it was dirty. United's concourse - Newark is United's major East Coast hub - had been remodeled and was new and nice, but the rest of the airport was a dump.

Now, an air-traffic controller is warning travelers to avoid Newark.

Newark Liberty International Airport is “not safe” for travelers, one air traffic controller at the delay-plagued travel hub reportedly warned.

“It is not safe. It is not a safe situation right now for the flying public,” the federal air safety employee reportedly told NBC News correspondent Tom Costello.

“Really an incredible statement, unsolicited. He just said that to me, and separately, ‘Don’t fly into Newark. Avoid Newark at all costs,’” Costello recounted on MSNBC.

The airport, which served 49 million travelers in 2024 and is the second busiest in the New York City area, has been drowning in delays and cancellations for days.

It's an incredible statement indeed. A major airport in the United States of America, deemed unsafe by an air traffic controller who works there. 

Newark Liberty seems to be shedding air traffic controllers.

Newark has lost 20% of its air controllers in recent weeks, according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, who issued a statement Friday claiming they had “walked off the job.”

The situation has grown so dire that United Airlines — which uses the airport as its primary East Coast hub — announced it was cancelling 35 roundtrip flights daily, saying it was necessary “in order to protect our customers.”

“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,” Kirby said.

This raises the question: How many other airports are in the same situation?

See Also: Yet Another Plane Accident at DC's Reagan Airport, Several Congressmen Were Aboard Flights

SecTrans Sean Duffy Teases Pulling Funds for City Subways, Upgrades to the Federal Aviation System

It's a sad situation. I've sat in the concourse at Newark and looked across at the world's most famous city skyline. But the parking garage we used when flying in and out of Newark was in a neighborhood near the airport that looked to have been disintegrating for some years. We always drove in with doors locked and windows up, and left the same way.

But one would expect an airport - a facility that is heavily regulated by the federal government - to be adequately staffed and well-maintained. Newark Liberty was not in 2018-2020 when we were flying in and out of there, and it appears to have more problems now, in no small part because air traffic controllers are, as Secretary Duffy put it, walking off the job.

There is, however, a rule of employment that applies. If you can't find enough qualified people to do a given job, it may be because people with those skills and abilities can find less stressful, better-paying work elsewhere. There's a simple solution to that - increase the pay. Attract more skilled, qualified people, and do it fast. 

DOGE is finding billions of dollars in wasteful spending, and the Democrats are losing their minds as they realize their gravy train and woke projects are coming to an end.

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